New Mexico Writers assume sponsorship of the New Mexico Book Awards

Think of New Mexico Writers as a tree whose branches are still spreading.

The organization’s newest branch is its sponsorship of the New Mexico Book Awards.

New Mexico Writers took on the awards program this year, with winners and finalists announced Oct. 1.

Starting in 2007, the awards were managed by Paul Rhetts and his late wife Barb Awalt under the aegis of New Mexico Book Co-op.

For some of the intervening years, the awards had been expanded to a two-state affair — the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards.

Rhetts credited his late wife with coming up with the idea for the book awards.

“We were sitting on the front porch of the Albuquerque Press Club. There were six or eight of us sitting around with a glass of wine. We were decompressing after a book event at the Jewish Community Center,” Rhetts said.

“I believe it was Barb who said, ‘What about a book awards program?’ Everybody agreed that that’s exactly what we needed at that time.”

Rhetts said that he carried on the awards program for the last five years until he retired in 2024.

He expressed his confidence that New Mexico Writers will continue his work.

“They’re a terrific group to pass the baton to. I know that they are an organization that will give it the loving care that I hope I gave. They do love New Mexico books as much as I do," Rhetts said.

New Mexico Writers honored Rhetts for his role in administering the awards by naming the most highly rated book in the 2025 competition the inaugural Paul Rhetts Award.

That award was given to Vaunda Micheaux Nelson’s poetry book “Radiant.” Nelson is a retired Rio Rancho librarian.

“Radiant” was also the winner in the awards’ juvenile category and it was one of 18 finalists in the poetry category.

New Mexico Writers has been in existence since 2016 with the overarching goal of bringing together members of the state’s literary community.

Its annual dinner connects aspiring writers with established writers, said Lisa McCoy, New Mexico Writers’ administrator and the director of the New Mexico Book Awards program.

In addition, its Rising Writers Program links aspiring writers with professionals in related literary fields, among them editors, publishers, literary agents and book publicists.

Since 2019, New Mexico Writers has also sponsored a grant program.

That program offers grants in three categories — the New Mexico Writers Annual Grant, the Douglas Preston Travel Grant and the Preston Young Writers Grant.

Residents of New Mexico and members of the greater Navajo Nation are invited to apply for grant funding which supports new or ongoing projects in one of these genres — fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism, playwriting and screenwriting, according to the New Mexico Writers website.

As of Dec. 1, grant applications may be submitted for 2026. The grant submission deadline is March 6, 2026. Visit nmwriters.org for application details.

Recipients of grants will be announced at the New Mexico Writers annual dinner on April 30, 2026, in Santa Fe.

McCoy said New Mexico Writers is a nonprofit and all of its programs are funded by donations.

“Board members and committee members are all volunteers,” she said.

McCoy said she and Saleema Ishq, editor of the organization’s monthly publication, The New Mexico Writer, are the only paid staff members.

The organization’s board chair is JJ Amaworo Wilson.