Taos Writers Showcase
For two decades, SOMOS sponsored a successful six- to eight-week Winter & Summer Writers Series, which highlighted local, regional, and occasional national writers and poets. In the fall of 2017, we decided to change the series to quarterly and recruit only nationally and internationally known writers and poets. Since our move to Civic Plaza Drive, with its enlarged space, we have begun hosting ongoing readings from both local and regional writers. Our shift to a quarterly Writers Showcase brings authors—many of whom we hadn’t been able to attract in the past—to Taos for both readings and workshops.
To inaugurate the series, we presented best-selling author Tommy Orange on January 5, 2018, to a sold-out audience; he read from his as-yet-unpublished There, There. In April, we collaborated with the Taos Jazz Bebop Society to host Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Tyehimba Jess, accompanied by the John Rangel Trio. Our keynote speaker for the second annual Taos Writers Conference was novelist, essayist, and memoirist Kate Christensen, and we completed our series with a reading and workshop by Naomi Shihab Nye in the fall of 2018.
In 2019, we started off the series with Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Caroline Fraser, author of Prairie Fires. We followed in April with award-winning poet Jamaal May (Hum). In May, we featured Mexican-American author Francisco Cantú, whose book The Line Becomes a River reflects on his four years as a U.S. Border Patrol agent. His presentation addressed border and immigration issues in collaboration with two local advocacy groups, Taos United and Taos Immigrant Allies. Arthur Sze was the keynote speaker for the third annual Taos Writers Conference, in July 2019.
The first Writers Showcase author of 2020 was Chigozie Obioma, winner of the inaugural FT/Oppenheimer Award for Fiction, the NAACP Image Awards for Debut Literary Work, and the LA Times prize for First Fiction, and was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize 2015. Obioma read at the Harwood Museum of Art on February 14, 2020.
The last writer on our 2020 Writers Showcase schedule was biographer and nonfiction writer, Holly George-Warren, reading from her most recent publication on Janis Joplin, Janis: Her Life and Music.
In 2021 we invited poet Ada Limón for Poetry Month, Luci Tapahonso to be the keynote speaker for our 5th Annual Taos Writers Conference, and presented E.J. Levy, author of Love In Theory and The Cape Doctor for Prose month in November.
Showcase writers for 2022 include Kirk Wallace Johnson, Camille Dungy, Ana Castillo, Luis Alberto Urrea, Lan Samantha Chang, and Steve Almond. Showcase writers for 2024 featured Paul Tran, Ramona Emerson, Two Worlds Performance Group presentation “Spider Woman Stories,” and Kinari Webb. 2024 brought Martin Espada, Laura Jacobs, Allison Hedge Coke, and Dr. Ray Christian. Planned wrtiers for 2025 are Rachel Coventry (from Galway, Ireland), Stevie Czerniel, Nick Flynn, and Levi Romero.
Upcoming Writers
Rachel Coventry
Poet from Galway, Ireland, April 25, 5:30pm
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).
Stevie Czerniel
June '25 TBD
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.
Nick Flynn
July 25, 5:30pm
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.
Levi Romero
Hispanic Heritage Month Speaker, TBD
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.
Past Writers
Dr. Ray Christian
2024 Storytelling Festival
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.
Allison Adele Hedgecoke
2024 Writers Conference Keynote Speaker
Laura Jacobs
2024 Writers Showcase
She is a psychotherapist, activist, public speaker, and author devoted to the exploration of identity and the relationship between individual and society, the diversity of gender identity and sexual expression, and the search for meaning. Jacobs is the editor of Surviving Transphobia: Transgender and Nonbinary Experts on Endurance
An anthology of transgender and gender nonbinary leaders and role models writing on their own experiences of transphobia, their suffering, and strategies for endurance so that members of the community can grow from understanding the private lives and struggles of those in the public eye. These authors also share their reflections on the current climate of politicized, weaponized transphobia.
Recent years have been agonizing, most especially for those of us who might be role models. After each new assault on trans lives, we model confidence when we are equally traumatized ourselves, we assert our community’s ability to thrive when we are sometimes just as uncertain as our audiences. How do we balance our internal distresses with our visibility to the public eye? How do we demonstrate strength each time there is a new anti-trans proclamation? How do we persevere in our own lives? And how can we use our stories to teach endurance to others trans and gender nonbinary themselves?
Martín Espada
2024 Writers Showcase Author
Martín Espada has published more than twenty books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. His new book of poems from Norton is called Floaters, winner of the 2021 National Book Award. Other books of poems include Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (2016), The Trouble Ball (2011), The Republic of Poetry (2006) and Alabanza (2003). He is the editor of What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump(2019). He has received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Creeley Award, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. The Republic of Poetry was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The title poem of his collection Alabanza, about 9/11, has been widely anthologized and performed. His book of essays and poems, Zapata’s Disciple (1998), was banned in Tucson as part of the Mexican-American Studies Program outlawed by the state of Arizona, and reissued by Northwestern. A former tenant lawyer in Greater Boston, Espada is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Ramona Emerson
2023 Taos Writers Conference Keynote Speaker
Friday, 7/7/23 (Taos Writers Conference)
Loida Maritza Pérez
2023 Writers Showcase Author
Saturday, 8/19/23
A native of the Dominican Republic, a 2022-2023 National Leaders of Color Fellow, and a 2023 WESTAF BIPOC Artist Fund Awardee Loida Maritza Pérez is an independent scholar, cultural activist and author of Geographies of Home, a novel published in the United States and abroad. Her upcoming book, Beyond the Pale, won a PEN America 2019 Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History. Her most recent publication focuses on themes of immigration. She will present a reading and offer a Q&A. This is a free event.
Kim Delfina Gleason
Artistic Director, Two Worlds: Native Theater & Performing Arts
Saturday, 10/14/23 (Taos Storytelling Festival)
Two Worlds is dedicated to the craft of performing arts expressing the duality of the contemporary American Indian through drama, comedy and storytelling. Two Worlds is on a mission to empower Native communities through performance art that is of, by, and for Native Americans.
Kinari Webb
2023 Writers Showcase Author
Friday & Saturday, 11/3/23 – 11/4/23
Kinari Webb is an American physician who founded Health in Harmony in 2005 to support her work in Indonesia after studying orangutans at Gunung Palung National Park. Dr. Webb graduated from Yale University School of Medicine with honors. Her book Guardians of the Trees was published in 2021.
Paul Tran
2023 Writers Showcase Author
Friday & Saturday, 4/14/23-4/15/23
Paul Tran is the author of the debut poetry collection, All the Flowers Kneeling, from Penguin in the US and the UK. They are a Visiting Faculty in Poetry at Pacific University MFA in Writing and a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University.
Steve Almond
2022 Writers Showcase Author
Friday & Saturday, 11/11/22-11/12/22
Steve Almond is the author of a dozen books, including the New York Times Bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. His new novel, All the Secrets of the World, has been optioned for television by 20th Century Fox. He teaches at Harvard and Wesleyan.
Carmen Agra Deedy
2022 Writers Showcase Author
Thursday & Saturday, 10/13/22-10/15/22
Carmen Agra Deedy is the author of twelve books for children and her personal stories first appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered. She is host of the four-time Emmy-winning children’s program, Love That Book!
Lan Samantha Chang
2022 Writers Showcase Author
Friday & Saturday, 10/7/22-10/8/22
Lan Samantha Chang is the author of the story collection Hunger and three novels. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. Samantha teaches at and directs Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Ana Castillo
2022 Writers Showcase Author
Keynote Speaker, 6th Annual Taos Writer’s Conference
Friday, 7/29/22 at 7pm MT
Ana Castillo has received a 1987 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, a Carl Sandburg Award, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in fiction and poetry and the Sor Juana Achievement Award by the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago.
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