New Mexico author Jenn Shapland to discuss her new book of essays at Bookworks

BOOKWORKS

New Mexico author Jenn Shapland discusses her new book of essays, “Thin Skin” at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, at Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande Blvd. NW. The book is described as a blend of historical research, interviews and everyday life in order to probe the lines between self and work, between human and animal and between need and desire. The essays also explore Shapland’s interest in building a creative life as a queer woman.

Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New England Review, Guernica and Tin House. Shapland’s book “My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir” was released in 2020. A review in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution described it as “sleek, elegant … Both a memoir of her own coming-out and a nuanced exploration of her magnificent obsession with the Georgia author known for her sensitive portrayals of misfits.”

COLLECTED WORKS

Collected Works is hosting six poets reading from their works under the umbrella title of Jewish Poetry Salon at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7. The six are New Mexico Poet Laureate Lauren Camp; Elizabeth Jacobson, the founding director of WingSpan Poetry Project, which conducts poetry classes in battered family and homeless shelters; Maia H. Katz; Michelle Laflamme-Childs, executive director of the New Mexico Arts division; Hilda Raz, series editor for poetry at University of New Mexico Press and a former editor-in-chief of Prairie Schooner literary magazine; and Miriam Sagan.

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

‘REDEMPTION’

Four Taos Pueblo women go missing in Deborah J. Ledford’s new suspense novel “Redemption.” Deputy Sheriff Eva “Lightning Dance” Duran, also a member of the pueblo, investigates when she senses her department’s lack of interest in the disappearances. One of the missing happens to be Eva’s best friend, Paloma, a heroin addict and a once-famous hoop dancer. The novel is the first book in a planned series. Ledford, who is part Eastern Band Cherokee, is an Agatha Award winner and a two-time nominee for the Anthony Award. She lives in the Phoenix area.

‘HEAD FOR THE HIGH COUNTRY’

The 50th anniversary edition of David L. Caffey’s “Head for the High Country: Living the Philmont Adventure” has been published by The Philmont Staff Association Inc. In a new introduction, Caffey writes that it is “a memoir of a youth who was fortunate enough to land at Philmont (Scout Ranch) in his teens, and to return many times as a staff member, adult leader, advisory committee member and staff alumnus.”

Philmont is a Boy Scouts of America ranch covering 140,000 acres in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near the town of Cimarron.

Caffey is an award-winning independent historian. His other books include “Chasing the Santa Fe Ring: Power and Privilege in Territorial New Mexico.” He also served as an administrator at San Juan College and at Clovis Community College. Caffey lives in Lubbock, Texas.

— Compiled by David Steinberg/For the Journal