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Major geographic hubs for Anne Valley-Fox have included Paterson, NJ; Santa Monica, Berkeley and San Francisco, CA and northern NM. Santa Fe became her home in 1981 when she joined the Poets in the Schools program, which assigned her the intoxicating task of “doing poetry” with kids in schools and ... (more)residencies around the state. Valley-Fox has published three nonfiction books, most recently Frontier Stories co-edited with Ann Lacy and sponsored by Project Crossroads. Her poems are collected in Sending the Body Out (Zephyr Press), Fish Drum 15 (Fish Drum Press), Point of No Return (La Alameda Press) and—hot off the UNM press—How Shadows Are Bundled.

John Brandi has resided in New Mexico since 1971. As a poet, he owes much to the West Coast Beat tradition. San Francisco Poet Laureate, Jack Hirschman, has said of Brandi: “He has been an open roader for much of his life and like his two great forbearers, Whitman and Neruda, has named the minute particulars, ... (more)the details of his sojournings, infusing them with a whole gamut of feelings: compassionate, mischievous, loving and righteous. It’s what’s made his poetry one of the solid bodies of work that’s emerged from the North American West since the ‘60s.” Taos writer, John Nichols, has praised Brandi’s work, saying: “The way (he) interprets the world is rich with the guts and gusto of old-fashioned magicians. His is a bittersweet, loving vision, as well as a hardass, heartfelt swansong to the disappearing vestiges of a more truthful way of life.” Author of three-dozen books of poetry, Brandi has given readings internationally. His work has been translated into Hindi, Punjabi, Italian, and Spanish. Recent travels to Cuba, Vietnam, India and China have informed much of his writing and political outlook. In 1980 he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry. This year he was invited to give the keynote talk for the International Haiku Conference in Ottawa Canada. Last year his latest collection of poetry, Facing High Water, was published by White Pine Press. Renée Gregorio moved to Taos in 1985 with $50 and a borrowed suitcase full of clothes and poems, with the intention of staying in New Mexico for one year to finish her master’s thesis. As it happens, things are turning out differently. Blinking Yellow Books published her first collection of poems, The Skins of Possible Lives, when she was often seen performing with Luminous Animal, a jazz-poetry group. Her poems have appeared in many journals, chapbooks and anthologies of poetry in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to Skins, her books include The Storm That Tames Us (1999), Water Shed (2004), and the upcoming Drenched (2009). She was one of the founding editors of the Taos Review and is a co-founder of the publishing collective, Tres Chicas Books. With 3rd-degree black belt rank in aikido, and a master's degree in creative writing from Antioch University, London, Renée has created the poetry dojo, a learning environment in which participants gain in voice, expression, and power through poetry-making and body-centered practices. She is also a certified somatic coach and bodyworker with the Strozzi Institute. Of her first book, the poet Robin Becker says: "Gregorio's women give voice to our twin longings for individual identity and relationship. She articulates the tangle of our desires in bold and nuanced language." And of her second book, John Nichols says: "It has a quiet yet passionate intensity, richly connected to earth and to the yearning and scary rhythms and rites of true loving. The intimacy is both gentle and unafraid..."

USA Multi-City tour for promotion of Shades of Grey. Reading/Q&A/Signing.