True Brit Book Signing

Artemesia Publishing is proud to announce the release of its tenth book in print and Rosemary Zibart's first installment of the Far and Away series, True Brit: Beatrice, 1940, about young people displaced and relocated during World War II.

What would it be like for an English girl to come from rainy, war-torn England in 1940 and arrive in sunny bohemian Santa Fe? In True Brit: Beatrice, 1940, a spoiled English girl, Beatrice Sims, comes to Santa Fe to live with a practical, hard-working nurse, Clementine Pope. At first, the twelve-year-old hates the dusty little town, and is accused of being “faceta” – stuck up. But soon Beatrice makes friends with goofy Arabella, develops a crush on handsome Esteban, aids Ana, a shy Indian girl, and learns that she has more courage and ability than she ever imagined.

Join Artemesia Publishing and Ms. Zibart for a book signing and special presentation of book excerpts on Sunday, October 30 from 2-4 pm as part of the Dia de los Cuentos (Day of Stories) at the Santa Fe Children's Museum on 1050 Old Pecos Trail. Admission is free with museum entry.

For more information, call 505-603-2656.

Sex, Lies, and Menopause:

The Shocking Truth About Hormone Replacement Therapy

Wednesday, October 19
6:00 - 7:30 pm
Main Library Community Room
145 Washington Ave.

Turning thirty years of medical and cultural wisdom on its head, Sex, Lies, and Menopause challenges both the medical establishment and modern feminists to prove that menopause does not have to lead to potentially deadly conditions. The research presented in Sex, Lies, and Menopause will at last allow women to create their own plan of action to put themselves on the path to better health and hormonal balance at any stage of life.

An anthropologist and cultural theorist, T.S. Wiley is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and has been a guest investigator at Sansum Medical Reserch Institute. She lives in Santa Fe.

This program is free and open to the public.

In New Mexico Writing Mystery

A Book Discussion by
J.P. Hudson and Michael Arkin

Saturday, October 1
2:00 - 3:00 pm
Main Library Community Room
145 Washington Ave.

Kidnapper’s Moon by J.P. Hudson:
When Paul awakes, he finds his world reduced to a small circle defined by the sweep of a chain tethering him to an eyebolt. Boredom turns to horror when he learns that he will not be alive to celebrate his eleventh birthday party, whether or not the ransom is paid. People who love him are powerless to do anything but meet the kidnapper’s demands. Bill Hamilton and Freddie Herrera are the only ones who can possibly solve the riddle of a shadowy criminal network, rescue Paul and find those responsible.

Out of Balance by Michael Arkin:
Matt Lucas, a lawyer who has devoted his professional life to obtaining justice for women and children in a rural community, is in the process of retiring and relocating to Santa Fe, New Mexico, when he is called upon to assist Linda Lawson, an award-winning San Diego reporter, in a seemingly routine investigation of an incident of domestic violence. Their investigative assignment quickly transforms into a suspenseful mystery that plunges the reader into the worlds of domestic violence, child abuse, corruption, and judicial cover-up. Michael Arkin is a former attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. He now lives in Corrales, New Mexico.

This program is free and open to the public.

Water on the Mind

Journey SantaFe and The Travel Bug are resuming their Sunday morning presentation series. Each one begins at 11:00 am. There's no admission, but a $3-5 contribution is encouraged.

September's presentations are part of "A Continuing Conversation with David Bacon, host of KSFR's Living On The Edge, on Who Controls Water in the Bio Region." So show up at The Travel Bug, grab some coffee, and feast your mind!

Upcoming events are:

September 11
Book Signing & Discussion
On: Rio Arriba: A New Mexico County –
A Look At Land Usage, Irrigation, Land Grants & Water Issues
with Robert J. Tórrez & Robert Trapp, Co-Authors

September 18
William DeBuys
Author, Historian and Conservationist
Discusses Water and Climate Change In the Bio Region

September 25
Steve Klinger
will unveil the newspaper The Light of New Mexico

The Travel Bug Bookstore is located at 839 Paseo de Peralta between Palace and Alameda. You can call them at 992-0418 for more information.

Rio Grande Gorge photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Yes, we're telling you to:

I may be a bit heavy-handed by saying that everyone should see Jimmy Santiago Baca at least once in his or her life, but I'll still say it.

You need to see Jimmy Santiago Baca at least once in your life.

For those of you who know his name, I don't need to explain who he is. For the rest of you, he's one of New Mexico's best-known poets, and for good reason. Even if you don't like poetry, you will like Jimmy Santiago Baca.

So now that you've been summarily lectured to, please clear your calendars and make sure you're at tomorrow night's event:

Jimmy Santiago Baca reading from his latest book:
Breaking Bread with the Darkness, Book 1: The Esai Poems
Tuesday, April 5
6:00 PM
Collected Works Bookstore
202 Galisteo St. at Water St.
505-988-4226

Thus endeth the lesson.

Shakespeare: Page to Stage

A Discussion with
John F. Andrews and Jerry Ferraccio

Thursday, February 10
7:00 p.m.
Main Library Community Room
145 Washington Ave.

How do actors and directors “read” Shakespeare’s scripts and translate them into vibrant performances? What do they need to know about the cultural contexts in which these works were first produced? What kind of attention should they give to the rhythmic patterns found in verse and prose?

These are some of the questions we invite you to explore with John Andrews, founder and president of the Shakespeare Guild and a scholar who has produced two editions of the playwright’s plays, and Jerry Ferraccio, a theater professional who has delighted audiences in such venues as Shakespeare & Company and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

This event is free and open to the public.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

New Mexico Women Author's Book Festival

The 3rd Annual New Mexico Women Authors’ Book Festival will be held from Wednesday, September 28 to Sunday, October 3, 2010.

This year the program has expanded to include a program with best-selling author Anne Lamott. She will be giving a talk at The Lensic at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, September 28.

The rest of the festival is at the New Mexico History Museum at 113 Lincoln Avenue. There are a variety of workshops and exhibits on October 1-3. Some are free and open to the public, and other events require registration and a fee. Please check the New Mexico Creates website or call 1-877-567-7380 for a full schedule and more information.

Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta

Twentieth Anniversary Reading By Kate Braverman

Thursday, September 16, 2010
7:00 pm
Main Library Community Room
145 Washington Ave.

Published in the 1990 short story collection, Squandering the Blue, Kate Braverman’s “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta” has appeared in numerous anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories, 1991 and The O. Henry Awards Prize Stories, 1992. To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of its publication, Ms. Braverman will read and discuss her widely-acclaimed story.

Kate Braverman is author of four books of poetry and the novels: Lithium for Medea, Palm Latitudes, Wonders of the West, and The Incantation of Frida K. She was awarded the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize for Frantic Transmissions to and from Los Angeles: An Accidental Memoir, published in Feb. 2006.

This event is free and open to the public.

Fur, Fortune, and Empire:

The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America

A Presentation by Eric Jay Dolin

Sponsored by the New Mexico History Museum and the Santa Fe Public Library

Wednesday, August 18, 2010
12:00 - 1:30 pm
Meem Room
New Mexico History Museum
113 Lincoln Ave.

From the establishment of the first trading posts by the Dutch East India Co. to the dissolution of the American Fur company and the near destruction of the buffalo, Eric Jay Dolin shows us in Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America how the fur trade was one of the key motivating forces in the imperial struggle for the colonies, and later the driving inspiration for America’s westward expansion.

Eric Jay Dolin’s previous book, Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, was chosen by the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe as one of the best books of 2007.

This event is free and open to the public.

Celebrating the Bicentennial of Margaret Fuller:

A Presentation By Michael Barnett

Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
Main Library Community Room
145 Washington Ave.

Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850) was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with Emerson, Thoreau, and the American transcendentalism movement. Her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century is considered the first major feminist work in the United States, and today she’s considered one of the guiding lights of the first-wave of feminism.

The Bicentennial hopes to raise awareness of Margaret Fuller, so that her story may inspire people of all ages to think independently, express their thoughts clearly, defend their convictions with courage, learn through dialogue and the free exchange of opinions, believe in the equality of all people, and be open to change.

Michael Barnett works as a theologian, educator, and teaching artist/poet. For nine years, Michael has spoken and taught on the Transcendentalists in Unitarian Universalist and liberal churches in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and New Mexico. His article, "The Awesome Pen of Sarah Margaret Fuller", was published in the Winter 2010 issue of the Universalist Herald.

This event is free and open to the public.

Daguerreotype of Margaret Fuller by John Plumbe, 1846

A Spiral Life

A Book Discussion by Jean C. MacPhail

Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
Main Library Community Room
145 Washington Ave.

Every twenty years or so, Jean MacPhail's life completes a pattern of events that repeats itself over the next twenty years. But the pattern moves into a different dimension, creating a “spiral”, moving “upward” through different “colors” of experience. In A Spiral Life, she writes about the first two loops of the spiral, from birth in Scotland through an early career in art, qualification as an M.D., and entering a Vedantic convent in San Francisco just before her fortieth year. Visit A Spiral Life for more information.

This event is free and open to the public.

Research and the Art of Writing a Novel

A Presentation and Reading by Irene Blea

Thursday, May 13
7:00 pm
Main Library Community Room

Join Irene Blea as she discusses the research conducted at libraries, historical societies, research center archives, and villages in order to write her novel, Suzanna. She will review places and people not very well known outside of northern New Mexico: Ocate, Springer, Loma Parda, Watrous, Cimarron, Reyado, and Miami. Blea found she could blend her love of visiting and studying communities to write about Suzanna, a twelve-year-old girl in an arranged marriage to a thirty-nine-year-old man.

After 27 years of writing university sociology textbooks and articles, Dr. Blea has written her first historical novel. She’s also a lecturer and Chautauquean for the New Mexico Humanities Council.

This program is free and open to the public.