All readings are supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities’s Southwest and Border Studies Institute’s outreach fund.

Reading events are on Fridays at 7:30 pm in the CMI Theater in Milton Hall on the New Mexico State campus, unless otherwise noted.

September 13: Karen Brennan/Joni Wallace
Joni Wallace's third full-length poetry collection is Landscape with Missing River (Barrow Street Press, 2023), winner of the 2023 NM-AZ Book Award. Her honors include Four Way Books’ Levis Prize for her collection, Blinking Ephemeral Valentine, and fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Baltic Writing Residency.
Karen Brennan is the author of nine books which include poetry, fiction and nonfiction. A recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship and an AWP award, she is Professor Emerita from the University of Utah. Her most recent books are Television, a Memoir (2022) and Rabbit in the Moon (2024).
September 27: Deborah Taffa with MFA fiction writer Rodrigo Hernandez
Deborah Jackson Taffa’s recent memoir, WHISKEY TENDER has received much praise. With fellowships and grants from the NEA for the Arts in Prose, the University of Iowa, PEN America, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Rona Jaffe, Tin House, A Public Space and the NY State Summer Writer’s Institute, Taffa is the director of the MFA CW at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM.

September 27: Deborah Taffa with MFA Candidate Rodrigo Hernandez

Deborah Jackson Taffa is a citizen of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo. She
earned her MFA at the Iowa Writers Workshop and is the Director of the MFA in Creative
Writing Program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Whiskey Tender is her new book, a memoir which details the challenges and beauties of growing
up on the Diné (Navajo) reservation in New Mexico. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus,
Boston Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, A Public Space, Salon, The Best Travel
Writing, and other outlets.

October 11: Danielle Dutton/Martin Riker
Danielle Dutton is the author of the novels Margaret the First and SPRAWL and the collections Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other and Attempts at a Life. She wrote the text interpolations in Richard Kraft’s Here Comes Kitty: A Comic Opera and an illustrated nonfiction chapbook on fiction/visual art called A Picture Held Us Captive. She is co-founder and editor of the award-winning press Dorothy, a publishing project and a professor in the English Department at Washington University in St. Louis.
Martin Riker is the author of two novels, The Guest Lecture and Samuel Johnson's Eternal Return. His reviews and criticism appear frequently in publications including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. In 2009 he co-founded (with Danielle Dutton) the independent feminist press Dorothy, a publishing project. He is a Teaching Professor in the English Department at Washington University in St. Louis, where he directs the concentration in book publishing.

October 25: Melanie Sweeney with MFA fiction writer Mariana Erazo
Melanie Sweeney is the author of the forthcoming rom-com, Take Me Home (Putnam, 2024). She writes romance with humor, heat, and heart. Melanie lives near Houston with her husband, three kids, and too many cats. When she’s not writing, she’s ice skating, embroidering, or learning old One Direction songs on her ukulele.
November 8: Rus Bradburd with MFA multigenre writer David Edwards
Rus Bradburd is the author of four previous books, including All the Dreams We've Dreamed: a Story of Hoops and Handguns on Chicago's West Side. He spent 14 seasons coaching Division basketball and 16 years as a university professor. He spends time in New Mexico, Chicago, and Belfast.