Countdown to the November Prose Month
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Rachel Coventry
Poet from Galway, Ireland
Rachel Coventry lives in Galway. She holds a PhD in Heidegger’s poetics from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her poems have appeared in various journals including The North, The Moth, Poetry Ireland Review, Cyphers, Stand, Southword, The Irish Times, and The SHop. She won the Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust Annual Poetry Competition in 2016 and has been short-listed for many other competitions including The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Prize. Her debut collection Afternoon Drinking in the Jolly Butchers (2018) is published by Salmon Poetry and her second collection, Detachable Heart, was published in 2022 (Salmon Poetry).
Nick Flynn
Nick Flynn (writer, playwright, poet) has published twelve books, most recently This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire (2020), a hybrid memoir; and Stay: threads, collaborations, and conversations (2020), which documents twenty-five years of his collaborations with artists, filmmakers, and composers. He is also the author of five collections of poetry, including I Will Destroy You (2019). He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress, and is on the creative writing faculty at the University of Houston. His acclaimed memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (2004), was made into a film starring Robert DeNiro, and has been translated into fifteen languages.
Miguel Santistevan
Poet Laureate
Beginning 1/1/24 through 12/31/25
Miguel Santistevan has a Bachelors of Science in biology from the University of New Mexico and a Masters of Science in Ecology from the University of California, Davis. His research interests are food systems of the upper Rio Grande and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Santistevan is certified in permaculture and xeriscape design and has directed youth in agriculture programs. He has dozens of publications in local papers like Green Fire Times and has delivered professional presentations to meetings of the Bioneers, the Green Festival, and the International Ethno-Biology Congress. He produced a public radio program called "Que vivan las acequias!" with the NM Acequia Association and KCEI-FM Radio, Taos County. He is a parciante and has served both as a mayordomo and president. Santistevan is a teacher, storyteller, musician and an amazing poet. For the 2024-25 theme of "Poetry with Youth," he will use his position as a guest lecturer in the public schools and other venues to recruit young people to submit poetry, artwork, and photographs for a project called "Home: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly." This project will result in a DIY publication of a zine that will be something that can be shared in print or digitally. When the zine is completed, there will be a reception with reading and projection of the featured poems, art, and photos of the young people who are willing to perform their pieces.
Stevie Czerniel
Stevie Elyse Czerniel, was born as Steven John August 10 th 1957 and raised in Los Angeles. In 1965 at eight-years-old he felt female inside but vowed to keep it secret. He lived as a male, but escaped to his real life as a girl when he was alone.
Over 30 years, Steve rose to senior VP at BBDO Advertising in San Francisco but always endured the pain of gender dysphoria alone. In 2021 after six decades of inner conflict and hidden outbursts of suicidal rage, Steven finally revealed herself as Stevie Elyse. Today Stevie lives happily as a transgender person in Taos New Mexico. What began as writing lessons with Catherine Strisik two years ago, has blossomed into a creative partnership of writing styles
determined to tell Stevie’s story.
Levi Romero
Hispanic Heritage Month Speaker
Levi Romero was selected as the inaugural New Mexico Poet Laureate in 2020. His most recent book is the co-edited anthology, Querencia: Reflections on the New Mexico Homeland. His two collections of poetry are A Poetry of Remembrance: New and Rejected Works and In the Gathering of Silence. He is co-author of Sagrado: A Photopoetics Across the Chicano Homeland. His co-edited, New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023, is forthcoming from Museum of New Mexico Press, 2023. He has served as co-editor on various journals and anthologies, including Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of the Greater Southwest. His poems and book publications have received numerous awards, including two 2017 Society for Humanistic Anthropology Poetry Award Honorable Mentions, a 2015 International Latino Book Awards, 2014-2015 Southwest Book Award, New Mexico Arizona Book Award, Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, Finalist, and a Best Books of the Southwest. He is also the recipient of several NEA and NEH grant awards, including a Research and Creative Works Leadership Award. He was awarded the post of New Mexico Centennial Poet in 2012. Romero is a bilingual poet whose language is immersed in the regional manito dialect of northern New Mexico. His work has been published throughout the United States, Mexico, Spain, and Cuba. His poem writing exercise, “Where I’m From, De dónde yo soy,” based on the original poem, Where I’m From, by George Ella Lyon, was published by Scholastic as part of a nationwide educational project and has been used extensively, nationally and internationally. He has taught writing workshops for schools, universities, incarcerated populations, libraries, community centers, writers’ organizations, private mentorships, and has also collaborated with community libraries on various ethno-poetry and oral history documentation projects. His work has been featured in numerous anthologies and on-line publications. He is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop. He has co-directed two films on acequia culture. Bendición del agua, a short film, premiered at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, and Going Home Homeless won a People’s Choice Award at the Taos Shortz Film Festival. Romero is from the Embudo Valley of northern New Mexico.He is an Associate Professor in the Chicana and Chicano Studies department at the University of New Mexico where he directs the New Mexico Cultural Landscapes Certificate program and the Digital Cuentos project.
Dr. Ray Christian
Storytelling Festival 2024
Ray’s stories have appeared in Readers Digest’s Best Stories in America (2016) and American Hero’s (2017) editions. He was selected as the 2017 Serenbe France Focus Storytelling Fellow (Atlanta, GA) and his stories have been featured on NPR radio shows such as The Moth Radio Hour, Snap Judgment, and Backstory as well as the Risk podcast, among many others. As a competitive storyteller, Ray is a ten-time Moth Story Slam Champion, and winner of the 2016 National Storytelling Festival Story Slam. Sharing his stories across the US and Canada, Ray has made several appearances on Moth Mainstage, The National Storytelling Festival Exchange Place (2019) , and was part of the 2018 tour of Snap Judgment Live!
In 2018, Ray has been named as the best known story teller in the south by Bitter Southerner magazine. Glynn Washington, host and producer of Snap Judgement, calls him “a storyteller’s storyteller.” He is distinguished for his exceptional accomplishments as a performer and spoken word performer and his training and experience as an educator and motivator.
Ray is currently the producer and host of What’s Ray Saying, a podcast that utilizes history , storytelling and commentary to provide a unique perspective on the African American cultural experience.
Upcoming Events
Peter Callan
Writer
Peter Callan is the author of Prepare to Die!!! and Other Stuff Nobody Told You.
Veronica Golos
Editor
An expert editor for poetry, poetry manuscripts, memoir and non fiction. With years of experience, and depth of perception.
Cisco Guevara
Storyteller
Owner of Los Rios River Runners, New Mexico’s oldest and largest rafting company, Cisco honed his storytelling skills around the campfire. A regular at the Taos Storytelling Festival, Cisco has told his tales to audiences as far afield as London and Paris, as well as to groups in Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
Thomas Hollingsworth
Writer
Thomas is a naturalist, philosopher and writer. He has written extensively on leadership, criminal justice, and technology as a state agency trainer. He currently contributes to a master naturalist newsletter and is writing a non-fiction on the principles of character. Thomas teaches yoga in Taos as a service to contribute to the Taos Medical Debt Relief Program.
Scott Archer Jones
Writer
Scott is currently working on his sixth novel. He lives in northern New Mexico, after stints in the Netherlands, Scotland and Norway, plus less exotic locations. . He’s worked for a power company, a lumberyard, an energy company, and a winery. He has three books out, through Southern Yellow Pine and Fomite.
Christian Leahy
Writer, Editor
Christian Leahy is a story midwife, developmental editor, and writer of mythic nonfiction. From groundbreaking bestsellers to award-winning documentaries and transformative TED Talks, Christian collaborates with people and projects committed to the power of story and narrative change to heal our connection to ourselves, the earth and each other.
Anne MacNaughton
Writer
Anne is a writer, poet, editor, visual artist and educator. A founder of both S.O.M.O.S. and the World Poetry Bout Association, she produced the famed Taos Poetry Circus from 1982 to 2005. She created the first competitive poetry contest for teenagers as well as the earliest teen competitive poetry team. She has taught creative writing and public speaking at UNM-Taos.
Kelly Madrone
Writer, Editor
Kelly Madrone is the award-winning author of two non-fiction books for and about teens, and more than 100 articles and guest blogs. She is a seasoned writer, editor, and writing coach with experience working in the traditional publishing industry and with self-publishing.
Ana McCracken
Writer
Ana’s writing is published in The California Writers Club Literary Review, the anthology Nothing But The Truth So Help Me God, Telepoem Booth® Iowa, and other publications. She splits her time between Angel Fire, and Ames, Iowa, and is writing a memoir while completing her MFA and teaching creative nonfiction for OLLI at Iowa State University. As an Amherst Writers & Artists Affiliate, Ana also leads writing workshops. www.anamccracken.com or www.anamccrackenworkshops.com.
Carrie Nassif
Writer, Poet, Editor
Carrie Nassif is a queer poet, clinical psychologist and life coach/creativity catalyst recently moved to the Taos area from the rural Midwest. Her poetry chapbook, “lithopadion” is available now. She hosts a Haiku-a-Week Facebook group for anyone interested.
Signe Nichols
Publisher, Editor
Over 10 Years’ Experience Working with Authors and Publishers
PUBLISHING SERVICES OFFERED
Interior Book Design and Formatting, Print on Demand Formatting, Ebook Design and Conversion; Ebook Fixes and Updates; Ebook uploading
MARKETING
Special Projects; Social Media Promoting; Consulting; Information
Quality Service Guaranteed, Local to Taos
Signe Nichols
firebirdmediamanagement@gmail.com
(575) 770 4617
Dru Philippou
Writer, Poet, Editor
Award-winning prose poetry writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University, Colorado, offers copy editing, and private consultations. She is also the author of A Place to Land, available on Amazon.
Email: druphilippou@aol.com
Phone: 505 717 7054.
Adrienne Pond
Writer, Editor
Adrienne Pond is an editor, English teacher, writer, and photographer. She loves coaching, developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, and proofreading fiction and nonfiction. Writers are mavericks who dare themselves and readers to be adventurers, to take changes, to better themselves through language and stories. Adrienne’s love for words and those who wield them makes being an editor a pleasure. Free consultations.
apond.lostartediting@gmail.com
Hannah Rappaport
Writer, Poet
Hannah Rappaport is a writer, poet, and sometime blogger. Her memoir Love on the Brink of History tells of her 20-year initiation in Western Perennial Wisdom culminating with ordination to the priesthood in the Gnostic Tradition. She hosts small meditation/writing groups focusing on non-resistance – exposing the habits that keep us from realizing our life’s mission.
Diana Rico
Editor
Diana Rico offers 30+ years’ experience editing award-winning nonfiction and fiction for established publishers and independent authors. She specializes in memoir/biography, the arts, spirituality, and Latinx subjects. Regular clients include Sounds True, Shambhala, Museum of New Mexico Press, University of Arizona Press, and University of New Mexico Press.
Contact: dianarico@earthlink.net for rates/edited books list. Visit website below for more info.
Dami Roelse
Writer
Dami Roelse was born and raised in Holland. She has traveled the world extensively, lived on different continents and studied with different spiritual teachers. Dami has used her passion for long distance hiking as a means to deepen her connection with nature and the universe. Her books are an expression of how her inner journey evolved alongside her outer journey.
Helen Rynaski
Writer, Editor
Whether you want to explain scientific jargon or tell a good yarn, Helen will make your prose shine. Her nonfiction articles have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and professional journals, and her original plays have won competitions. Her editing credits include memoirs; novels; professional, educational, and business publications; and technical manuals. Visit her website and enjoy a free sample edit.
Julian James Spalding
Poet
Julian retired to Ashland, Oregon in 2009 after publishing Albuquerque Arts magazine for ten years. He writes poetry and essays, many of which were published in Ashland Daily Tidings. He moved to Arroyo Seco with his husband August 2018. He is exploring the mystery of Taos Mountain.
Catherine Strisik
Poet, Editor
Catherine Strisik, award-winning poet, author of The Mistress (New Mexico/AZ Book Award for Poetry 2017); Thousand-Cricket Song; & chapbook, Insectum Gravitis (forthcoming Main Street Rag). Co-founder/ co-editor Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art. Active in Taos poetry community for over 36 years, teaches group and private poetry workshops, provides editing consultation for poetry manuscripts.
Cisco Guevara
Storyteller
Owner of Los Rios River Runners, New Mexico’s oldest and largest rafting company, Cisco honed his storytelling skills around the campfire. A regular at the Taos Storytelling Festival, Cisco has told his tales to audiences as far afield as London and Paris, as well as to groups in Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
Signe Nichols
Publisher, Editor
Over 10 Years’ Experience Working with Authors and Publishers
PUBLISHING SERVICES OFFERED
Interior Book Design and Formatting, Print on Demand Formatting, Ebook Design and Conversion; Ebook Fixes and Updates; Ebook uploading
MARKETING
Special Projects; Social Media Promoting; Consulting; Information
Quality Service Guaranteed, Local to Taos
Signe Nichols
firebirdmediamanagement@gmail.com
(575) 770 4617
Peter Callan
Writer
Peter Callan is the author of Prepare to Die!!! and Other Stuff Nobody Told You.
Thomas Hollingsworth
Writer
Thomas is a naturalist, philosopher and writer. He has written extensively on leadership, criminal justice, and technology as a state agency trainer. He currently contributes to a master naturalist newsletter and is writing a non-fiction on the principles of character. Thomas teaches yoga in Taos as a service to contribute to the Taos Medical Debt Relief Program.
Scott Archer Jones
Writer
Scott is currently working on his sixth novel. He lives in northern New Mexico, after stints in the Netherlands, Scotland and Norway, plus less exotic locations. . He’s worked for a power company, a lumberyard, an energy company, and a winery. He has three books out, through Southern Yellow Pine and Fomite.
Christian Leahy
Writer, Editor
Christian Leahy is a story midwife, developmental editor, and writer of mythic nonfiction. From groundbreaking bestsellers to award-winning documentaries and transformative TED Talks, Christian collaborates with people and projects committed to the power of story and narrative change to heal our connection to ourselves, the earth and each other.
Anne MacNaughton
Writer
Anne is a writer, poet, editor, visual artist and educator. A founder of both S.O.M.O.S. and the World Poetry Bout Association, she produced the famed Taos Poetry Circus from 1982 to 2005. She created the first competitive poetry contest for teenagers as well as the earliest teen competitive poetry team. She has taught creative writing and public speaking at UNM-Taos.
Kelly Madrone
Writer, Editor
Kelly Madrone is the award-winning author of two non-fiction books for and about teens, and more than 100 articles and guest blogs. She is a seasoned writer, editor, and writing coach with experience working in the traditional publishing industry and with self-publishing.
Ana McCracken
Writer
Ana’s writing is published in The California Writers Club Literary Review, the anthology Nothing But The Truth So Help Me God, Telepoem Booth® Iowa, and other publications. She splits her time between Angel Fire, and Ames, Iowa, and is writing a memoir while completing her MFA and teaching creative nonfiction for OLLI at Iowa State University. As an Amherst Writers & Artists Affiliate, Ana also leads writing workshops. www.anamccracken.com or www.anamccrackenworkshops.com.
Carrie Nassif
Writer, Poet, Editor
Carrie Nassif is a queer poet, clinical psychologist and life coach/creativity catalyst recently moved to the Taos area from the rural Midwest. Her poetry chapbook, “lithopadion” is available now. She hosts a Haiku-a-Week Facebook group for anyone interested.
Dru Philippou
Writer, Poet, Editor
Award-winning prose poetry writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University, Colorado, offers copy editing, and private consultations. She is also the author of A Place to Land, available on Amazon.
Email: druphilippou@aol.com
Phone: 505 717 7054.
Adrienne Pond
Writer, Editor
Adrienne Pond is an editor, English teacher, writer, and photographer. She loves coaching, developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, and proofreading fiction and nonfiction. Writers are mavericks who dare themselves and readers to be adventurers, to take changes, to better themselves through language and stories. Adrienne’s love for words and those who wield them makes being an editor a pleasure. Free consultations.
apond.lostartediting@gmail.com
Hannah Rappaport
Writer, Poet
Hannah Rappaport is a writer, poet, and sometime blogger. Her memoir Love on the Brink of History tells of her 20-year initiation in Western Perennial Wisdom culminating with ordination to the priesthood in the Gnostic Tradition. She hosts small meditation/writing groups focusing on non-resistance – exposing the habits that keep us from realizing our life’s mission.
Dami Roelse
Writer
Dami Roelse was born and raised in Holland. She has traveled the world extensively, lived on different continents and studied with different spiritual teachers. Dami has used her passion for long distance hiking as a means to deepen her connection with nature and the universe. Her books are an expression of how her inner journey evolved alongside her outer journey.
Helen Rynaski
Writer, Editor
Whether you want to explain scientific jargon or tell a good yarn, Helen will make your prose shine. Her nonfiction articles have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and professional journals, and her original plays have won competitions. Her editing credits include memoirs; novels; professional, educational, and business publications; and technical manuals. Visit her website and enjoy a free sample edit.
Carrie Nassif
Writer, Poet, Editor
Carrie Nassif is a queer poet, clinical psychologist and life coach/creativity catalyst recently moved to the Taos area from the rural Midwest. Her poetry chapbook, “lithopadion” is available now. She hosts a Haiku-a-Week Facebook group for anyone interested.
Dru Philippou
Writer, Poet, Editor
Award-winning prose poetry writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University, Colorado, offers copy editing, and private consultations. She is also the author of A Place to Land, available on Amazon.
Email: druphilippou@aol.com
Phone: 505 717 7054.
Hannah Rappaport
Writer, Poet
Hannah Rappaport is a writer, poet, and sometime blogger. Her memoir Love on the Brink of History tells of her 20-year initiation in Western Perennial Wisdom culminating with ordination to the priesthood in the Gnostic Tradition. She hosts small meditation/writing groups focusing on non-resistance – exposing the habits that keep us from realizing our life’s mission.
Julian James Spalding
Poet
Julian retired to Ashland, Oregon in 2009 after publishing Albuquerque Arts magazine for ten years. He writes poetry and essays, many of which were published in Ashland Daily Tidings. He moved to Arroyo Seco with his husband August 2018. He is exploring the mystery of Taos Mountain.
Catherine Strisik
Poet, Editor
Catherine Strisik, award-winning poet, author of The Mistress (New Mexico/AZ Book Award for Poetry 2017); Thousand-Cricket Song; & chapbook, Insectum Gravitis (forthcoming Main Street Rag). Co-founder/ co-editor Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art. Active in Taos poetry community for over 36 years, teaches group and private poetry workshops, provides editing consultation for poetry manuscripts.
Veronica Golos
Editor
An expert editor for poetry, poetry manuscripts, memoir and non fiction. With years of experience, and depth of perception.
Christian Leahy
Writer, Editor
Christian Leahy is a story midwife, developmental editor, and writer of mythic nonfiction. From groundbreaking bestsellers to award-winning documentaries and transformative TED Talks, Christian collaborates with people and projects committed to the power of story and narrative change to heal our connection to ourselves, the earth and each other.
Kelly Madrone
Writer, Editor
Kelly Madrone is the award-winning author of two non-fiction books for and about teens, and more than 100 articles and guest blogs. She is a seasoned writer, editor, and writing coach with experience working in the traditional publishing industry and with self-publishing.
Carrie Nassif
Writer, Poet, Editor
Carrie Nassif is a queer poet, clinical psychologist and life coach/creativity catalyst recently moved to the Taos area from the rural Midwest. Her poetry chapbook, “lithopadion” is available now. She hosts a Haiku-a-Week Facebook group for anyone interested.
Signe Nichols
Publisher, Editor
Over 10 Years’ Experience Working with Authors and Publishers
PUBLISHING SERVICES OFFERED
Interior Book Design and Formatting, Print on Demand Formatting, Ebook Design and Conversion; Ebook Fixes and Updates; Ebook uploading
MARKETING
Special Projects; Social Media Promoting; Consulting; Information
Quality Service Guaranteed, Local to Taos
Signe Nichols
firebirdmediamanagement@gmail.com
(575) 770 4617
Dru Philippou
Writer, Poet, Editor
Award-winning prose poetry writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University, Colorado, offers copy editing, and private consultations. She is also the author of A Place to Land, available on Amazon.
Email: druphilippou@aol.com
Phone: 505 717 7054.
Adrienne Pond
Writer, Editor
Adrienne Pond is an editor, English teacher, writer, and photographer. She loves coaching, developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, and proofreading fiction and nonfiction. Writers are mavericks who dare themselves and readers to be adventurers, to take changes, to better themselves through language and stories. Adrienne’s love for words and those who wield them makes being an editor a pleasure. Free consultations.
apond.lostartediting@gmail.com
Diana Rico
Editor
Diana Rico offers 30+ years’ experience editing award-winning nonfiction and fiction for established publishers and independent authors. She specializes in memoir/biography, the arts, spirituality, and Latinx subjects. Regular clients include Sounds True, Shambhala, Museum of New Mexico Press, University of Arizona Press, and University of New Mexico Press.
Contact: dianarico@earthlink.net for rates/edited books list. Visit website below for more info.
Helen Rynaski
Writer, Editor
Whether you want to explain scientific jargon or tell a good yarn, Helen will make your prose shine. Her nonfiction articles have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and professional journals, and her original plays have won competitions. Her editing credits include memoirs; novels; professional, educational, and business publications; and technical manuals. Visit her website and enjoy a free sample edit.
Catherine Strisik
Poet, Editor
Catherine Strisik, award-winning poet, author of The Mistress (New Mexico/AZ Book Award for Poetry 2017); Thousand-Cricket Song; & chapbook, Insectum Gravitis (forthcoming Main Street Rag). Co-founder/ co-editor Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art. Active in Taos poetry community for over 36 years, teaches group and private poetry workshops, provides editing consultation for poetry manuscripts.
Open Tues-Sat 12pm-4pm 575.758.0081 108 Civic Plaza Drive
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3225, Taos, NM 87571
THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS
SOMOS programs are made possible in part by these organizations: New Mexico Arts, a Division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts • Taos Community Foundation • The McCune Foundation • The National Endowment For The Arts • The Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation • Taos County Lodgers Tax • TaosNetLLC for high speed internet service • LANL (Los Alamos National Labs) • New Mexico Humanities Council • Nusenda Foundation • Witter Bynner Foundation • Amazon Literary Partnership • Literary Emergency Fund