Author Melody Groves wins Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Short Non-Fiction

AWARD WINNER

Melody Groves of Albuquerque received a gold medal from the Will Rogers Medallion Award for her article “The Kid’s Mom,” published in Wild West Magazine. Groves’ medal was the first ever given for the category of Western Short Non-Fiction. She received it in ceremonies earlier this month in Fort Worth, Texas. Groves said in an email that she used various “historical sources to flush out Billy the Kid’s mother.” Her full-length book, “Before Billy the Kid,” won a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America.

AT BOOKWORKS

Two San Diego, California, authors — Judy Reeves and Amy Wallen — will be in conversation about reading and writing at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, at Bookworks. They’ll also bring into the conversation their recent books.

Reeves’ is “When Your Heart Says Go: My Year of Traveling Beyond Loss and Loneliness.” Her website offers background for readers on the choices she made more than 30 years ago: “Nearing 50 and grieving the death of my husband, I sold most everything I owned, bought an around-the-world airline ticket and set off on a year-old solo journey. Months of solitude and loneliness challenged me to examine my old ideas and explore my deepest longings in my search for whom I might become in my new life.”

Wallen’s book is titled “How to Write a Novel in 20 Pies: Sweet and Savory Secrets for Surviving the Writing Life.” Her website describes it as “a hybrid of memoir about my journey to write a novel (‘Moon Pies and Movie Stars’) and a how-to on perseverance to do the same.”

Bookworks is located at 4022 Rio Grande Blvd. NW.

AT COLLECTED WORKS

Collected Works hosts several authors this week. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7, Betsy Gaines Quammen will chat with Santa Fe filmmaker Gary Dillingham about historian Gaines Quammen’s new book “True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America.” Her website says, “if the myths of the West are left unexamined, they distort the realities of the present and exacerbate polarizations. These misconceptions about land, politics, liberty and self-determination threaten the well-being of Western communities overrun by newcomers seeking a dream …” Gaines Quammen lives in Montana.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8, Erik Ohlsen discusses his new book “The Regenerative Landscaper: Design and Build Landscapes That Repair the Environment.” His website bills the book as an easy-to-read “collection of case studies, step-by-step processes, prevention and mitigation methods, and regenerative land management … to steward your land.”

Ohlsen wears many hats. He is a farmer, herbalist, storyteller, a practitioner of Nordic folk traditions, a Permaculture teacher and a landscape contractor. He lives in Sebastopol, California.

Collected Works is located at 202 Galisteo St., downtown Santa Fe.

IN TAOS

SOMOS Bookstore hosts several author events this week. At 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5, short story writer and poet Alexander Shalom Joseph of Colorado, and fiction writer and teacher Sean Murphy of Taos, will read from their recent works. … Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb discusses his new book “Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet” at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 6. … Novelist-essayist-journalist James Reich of Santa Fe, and veteran Santa Fe journalist Julia Goldberg, read from their recent writings at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10. Reich’s new novel is “The Moth for the Star.”

SOMOS is located at 107 Civic Plaza Drive, in Taos.

— Compiled by David Steinberg/For the Journal