In these stories of surprise and bafflement, everyday protagonists meander through what they see as fixed realities with justified expectations-until the door opens to the unexpected: a pregnant woman ponders her husband making love to a former lover for old times sake; an unpleasant present unsettles an otherwise happy bride; a girl making a wreath for her grandfather’s grave is accused of vanity. Drawing upon the many misunderstandings, inadvertent injuries, and clashing concepts of how things are supposed to be, Sigriddaughter delivers a powerful portrayal of the inevitable disconnect between people that often leaves us astonished and shaken.

Beate Sigriddaughter is a poet, novelist, and short story writer based in Silver City, New Mexico, where she served as Poet Laureate from May 2017 to April 2019 alongside co-poet laureate Jack Crocker. Raised in Nürnberg, Germany, near the castle and among the lingering ruins of World War II, she began rewriting fairy tales at age seven, an early sign of the literary path she would follow. Her work spans poetry, fiction, and other cross-genre writing, and she has received multiple poetry honors, from her first award in 1983 to additional prizes in 2017. She also founded the “Just Words” reading series and created the blog Writing In a Woman’s Voice, a long-running celebration of women’s writing.

The post They Didn’t Know What to Say appeared first on Southwest Word Fiesta™.

The Global Legend of Prester John delves into the enduring fascination with Prester John, an unreachable, collectively-imagined Christian priest-king who figured prominently in Europe’s entrance into an interconnected global world. This Element draws on “The International Prester John Project,” an archive of Prester John narratives, from papal epistles to missionary diaries to Marvel comics, all of which respond to the Christian heterotopia promised in the twelfth-century Letter of Prester John. During the medieval and early modern periods, the desire to legitimize the letter’s contents influenced military tactics and papal policy while serving as a cultural touchstone for medieval maps, travel narratives, and romance tales. By providing an overview of distinct narrative paths the legend took along with an analysis of the themes of malleability and elasticity within and across these paths, this Element addresses how belief in Prester John persisted for six centuries despite a lack of evidence.

Chris Taylor teaches literature and composition at WNMU. Prior to moving to Silver City in 2020, he taught at the University of Texas, Austin Community College, and Williams College, before briefly giving up the academic path to pursue who-knows-what here in the beautiful Southwest. He received his PhD in medieval literature in 2014 from the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation focused on the emergence of the unknowable/unknowability as a deliberate formal and thematic feature of 14th century narratives that helped to begin to distinguish “literary” writing from other, more revelatory forms of narrative. He has published several articles on medieval cycle drama, the medieval fascination with the biblical figure Herod, and the legend of Prester John. His first book, The Global Legend of Prester John, was published in 2025 by Cambridge University Press. In his free time, Chris enjoys playing music, hiking with his dog, watching Cleveland sports, and wandering the aisles of various grocery stores. His Middle English accent is not very good. 

The post The Global Legend of Prester John appeared first on Southwest Word Fiesta™.

“It was always this way, when you walked the paths slowly, gathered by the muddy rivers to wash, looked into each others’ eyes, spoke without words…” have you ever questioned what the purpose of life was? What happens after death? And if it all even matters? Across A Field of Stars by Elise Stuart takes you on a journey through nature and experience, exploring the beginning, middle, and end of this thing called life.

Reading this collection feels like being taken on a long walk, at first through the open fields, then into the shadowed places we try not to look at, and finally back out into the light. Poems keep circling nature, not as scenery but as a kind of mentor. Trees, rivers, seasons as if they’re always speaking, if we slow down enough to listen. The poet suggests that everything is poetry, that the world is constantly whispering lines at us, and we’re just clumsy translators, trying to catch them before they disappear.

The heart of the collection, though, lies in its confrontation with loss. The poems dwell on parents who inevitably leave, the baggage they pass on, and the work children must do to rewrite their own lives. That honesty is hard-hitting: grief, anger, and even inherited trauma are laid bare on the page. Yet it doesn’t feel despairing. Instead, the poems recognize that change is possible, even necessary, and that turning away from the past is sometimes the only way to move forward. The poet ties personal grief to historical wounds like the Bath Riots in El Paso and The Holocaust, reminding us these are not just footnotes in history but echoes that still shake through the present. And yet, even in the middle of anger, there’s a thread of hope: the belief that change is possible, that love doesn’t just survive hatred but outlasts it.

The final stretch of the collection feels like standing at the edge of something—death, yes, but also renewal. There’s a dance with death happening in these lines, not as morbid fixation but as a way of learning gratitude for life while we still have it. There’s a tenderness in how death is framed, not as an abrupt stop but as a return, a rejoining with nature and whatever waits beyond. I kept thinking about the imagery of seasons, how a tree doesn’t resist losing its leaves, it lets them go, because it knows spring will return. That idea of mother nature’s promise feels like the soft landing the book has been preparing us for all along.

What I loved most is how the collection doesn’t let you stay in one place for long. It stretches your gaze wide, pulls you close to the wound, and then asks you to imagine transformation. By the end, I felt both unsettled and steadied reminded that grief, history, and even death are all part of a larger rhythm. This book doesn’t just give you poems; it gives you a way to see, a way to walk through the world a little differently.

review written by our Fall 2025 Grandma Moses Press intern: Alexis Montoya

Elise Stuart has lived in Silver City for nineteen years. Living in the Midwest, then the Northwest, she was taken by surprise at the immensity of the New Mexico sky, the wide blue, the clouds that told her stories, the mountains, the Gila River, the wildflowers that live with so little rain.

She became the poet laureate of Grant County in 2014. Her vision was of youth bringing their poetry into the world, so she began offering poetry workshops. She gave nearly 100 workshops at schools in the area for three years. The students made “poem flags” by writing and illustrating one of their original poems. These were displayed in libraries, schools, coffee shops, an assisted living center and at WNMU’s art gallery for the Southwest Word Fiesta.

In 2017, her first book of poetry, Another Door Calls, was published, followed by My Mother and I, We Talk Cat, a memoir of prose and poetry.

The post A Field of Stars appeared first on Southwest Word Fiesta™.

Former college basketball coach and professor Rus Bradburd delivers a sharp, funny, and timely satire about higher education’s uneasy marriage with big-money sports. Set at the fictional Coors State University, Big Time follows two aging history professors who rebel against the school’s corporate rebranding and its obsession with football and basketball. Their clumsy, 1960s-style protests ignite chaos on campus—and expose what happens when academic ideals collide with the relentless pursuit of athletic glory.

Blending insider experience with biting humor, Bradburd skewers the commercialization of college life while asking deeper questions about loyalty, purpose, and the soul of education.

“Big Time is a big-time funny book.” — Jonathan Eig

“A subversive, sidesplitting, screwball of a novel.” — Arne Duncan

The post Big Time appeared first on Southwest Word Fiesta™.

Thurava of Astrava is intended to become a herder, a most honored position for her dwindling community that clings to life on the banks of the Najimov, the river that’s the lifeblood of the high desert. But the Glass City on the horizon threatens the delicate balance the Astravans have managed to hold on to for centuries, polluting the air and water as the city grows bigger and bigger. The Glass City’s clockwork liaisons offer to bring the Astravans into the Glass City’s walls, but they will have to give up their ways and their precious herds to do so. Thurava must decide who she is without her animals, using the stars as her guide, putting herself on a collision course with the secrets the Glass City holds dear.

Reviewer Jake Casella Brookins for Locus Magazine calls it “well-crafted” with “a pleasant resonance with Le Guin’s shorter fiction in the novella’s gentle anthropological approach.”
Read the full review

Reviewer Paul Weimer for Nerds of a Feather calls it “An unflinching science fiction and environmental fable.”
Read the review — It also made their 2025 Award Recommendation Reading List.

Advance Praise:

“Lauren C. Teffeau’s A Hunger with No Name is a powerful story of survival—personal, ecological, and cultural—in the presence of overwhelming technological power. The textures and politics of Teffeau’s world are so finely wrought, the relationships so carefully crafted, that I could almost taste the starlight and feel every connection and disconnection. A powerful and important story filled with mystery and heart.”
—Fran Wilde, Nebula-winning author of Updraft and the Gemworld series

“A heartfelt coming of age story about a girl made of starways and ancient stories who must decide what matters when her people and their way of life face annihilation. A reminder to us all of what it means to be human and in community and how far one girl will go to save her world. A thought-provoking meditation on what is lost and what is gained when we rely on technology to save us.”
—New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Roanhorse

“A Hunger With No Name is thought provoking, with a rich mythic texture that delights, even as it disturbs. You’ll find yourself musing over the implications of Thurava’s journey long after you read the final page.”
—New York Times bestselling author Jane Lindskold

“A powerful environmental fable with a headstrong heroine, Teffeau’s tale of a nomadic desert people forced into a high-tech city offers a glimpse into a unique fantasy world, and a testimony to the crucial cultural impact of storytelling.”
—Sarena Ulibarri, author of Another Life

“In A Hunger with No Name, Teffeau navigates the weave of mythology with respect for the indirect wisdom it conveys. She faces hard truths of resource stripping with an unflinching eye that anyone living in a water-scarce environment will recognize, and with an equally unflinching hope.”
—Sara A. Mueller, award-winning author of The Bone Orchard

About the Author:

Lauren C. Teffeau is a speculative fiction writer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, whose work focuses on environmental issues, examines the role of technology in our lives, and centers women’s voices through fantastical adventures and immersive worlds. Her novella A Hunger with No Name was published by the University of Tampa Press in 2024. Named a definitive work of climate fiction by Grist, her novel Implanted (2018, Angry Robot) was a finalist for the 2019 Compton Crook award for best first SF/F/H novel. She’s had over twenty short stories appear in venues like After Dinner Conversation, Sunday Morning Transport, DreamForge Magazine, and the Stoker Award-nominated Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror.

The post A Hunger with No Name appeared first on Southwest Word Fiesta™.

When college student Emery Driscoll is blackmailed into being a courier for a clandestine organisation, she’s cut off from the neural implant community which binds the domed city of New Worth together. Her new employer exploits her rare condition which allows her to carry encoded data in her blood, and train her to transport secrets throughout the troubled city. New Worth is on the brink of Emergence – freedom from the dome – but not everyone wants to leave. Then a data drop goes bad, and Emery is caught between factions: those who want her blood, and those who just want her dead.

Advance Praise:

“Lauren C. Teffeau brings us a fully-realized world filled with conflict, drama, and insight. When the city of New Worth hid from a hostile climate under its dome, it also bottled a host of tensions and disparities inside its soaring architecture. Bridging the lower depths and the heights of privilege is sympathetic, believably flawed courier Emery, whose very blood holds a secret that could bring the city crashing into ruins. . .”
– Walter Jon Williams, multi-award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Hardwired and the Praxis series.

“Implanted takes readers to the bleeding edge of a hopeful future and dives headlong into the risks required to make that future real. Emery is a character I loved from the start for her skills and flaws both, and Teffeau takes this ultra-high-tech future to new heights and depths with incredible skill. Such a great adventure!”
– Fran Wilde, Hugo and Nebula finalist and Andre Norton-winning author of the Bone Universe series

“Futuristic intrigue solidly rooted in intricate, multi-level worldbuilding – spiced with just a touch of romance – singles Lauren C. Teffeau’s Implanted out from the cyberpunk pack.”
– Jane Lindskold, New York Times bestselling author of Through Wolf’s Eyes

“Teffeau serves up the future and it’s entertaining and scary! The arms race of hackers and blockers goes to new heights, in an intriguing tale of life in the automated cities of the future.”
– S.M. Stirling, New York Times bestselling author of The Sky-Blue Wolves and The Black Chamber

“Imaginative and thrilling, Implanted features a truly unique premise, characters you’ll want to root for, and a fascinating, fully-realized future.”
– Lori M. Lee, author of Gates of Thread and Stone and The Infinite

About the Author:

Lauren C. Teffeau is a speculative fiction writer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, whose work focuses on environmental issues, examines the role of technology in our lives, and centers women’s voices through fantastical adventures and immersive worlds. Her novella A Hunger with No Name was published by the University of Tampa Press in 2024. Named a definitive work of climate fiction by Grist, her novel Implanted (2018, Angry Robot) was a finalist for the 2019 Compton Crook award for best first SF/F/H novel. She’s had over twenty short stories appear in venues like After Dinner Conversation, Sunday Morning Transport, DreamForge Magazine, and the Stoker Award-nominated Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror. Look for a new novella from her next spring. To learn more, please visit: http://www.laurencteffeau.com

The post Implanted appeared first on Southwest Word Fiesta™.

“Tentative, contemplative. If she were a candle, she would want to burn, not merely stand tall and unlit in graceful uselessness, decorative, devotional, and always a promise. She is not a candle. Still, she believes it is time to burst into flame instead of just skimming the edges of importance.”

From Beate Sigriddaughter: “Words are my passion and, with many wise folk before me, I believe that they are a significant tool for building a world of sanity, honor, and peace. I am especially passionate about having women’s voices heard, read, and validated in our off-kilter world.”

Beate Sigriddaughter is the author of several novels, collections of poetry and other writings. Her most recent poetry collections are Wild Flowers (2022), Kaleidoscope (2021), Emily (2020) and Dancing in Santa Fe (2019).

The post Circus Dancer appeared first on Southwest Word Fiesta™.

Award-winning author Charmayne Samuelson has published her 11th book, Mata Ortiz “Poetry of Clay: Poesía del Barro,” a bilingual photo and poetry book showcasing 24 Master Potters of Mata Ortiz, Mexico, and their work. This book has won two 2025 First Place Awards from the Independent Press Awards and also the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She launched her book in the small village of Mata Ortiz in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, less than 100 miles from the U.S.-Mexico Border and was honored to present her book to Ciudad Juarez Mayor Cruz Pérez Cuéllar, Presidente Municipal de Juárez. She is also the author of the Award-Winning and best-selling biography, SPENCER MacCALLUM Memories-Mystique-Mata Ortiz, of the anthropologist who ‘discovered’ Juan Quezada and jump-started his ceramic career, leading to over 1,000 well-known Mata Ortiz potters today. She previously published a time-travel mystery novel set in New Mexico, and two self-help books on hypnotherapy and meditation, a photography book, Wild Mustangs of the Onaqui Mountains, co-authored with her husband, as well as 4 all-age coloring books. Samuelson and her husband live in Las Cruces, NM. All of her books are available on Amazon.com.

The post POETRY OF THE CLAY appeared first on Southwest Word Fiesta™.

Step into the serene world of Bear Mountain Lodge with this one-of-a-kind cookbook that blends unforgettable recipes, rich storytelling, and stunning Southwestern art. Whether you’ve visited the Lodge or are discovering it for the first time, this book invites you to experience its magic from your own kitchen.

Featuring guest-favorite dishes like tortilla soup, granola, and ginger scones, each recipe comes with easy-to-follow instructions and ingredients that are likely already in your pantry. Designed to be both beautiful and practical, the cookbook lies flat and includes wipe-clean pages—ready for real use.

More than a collection of recipes, this book shares the stories behind the meals, the history of the Lodge, and projects like One Million Bones that have left a lasting mark on the land and its visitors. Illustrated with vibrant photos of the food, the art, and the surrounding landscape, it’s part cookbook, part keepsake, and part travelogue.

Whether you cook from it, display it, or gift it, this is a book full of joy, memory, and inspiration.

Linda Brewer grew up on a farm in southern Ohio. Her life has been defined by land and animals since the beginning. She has had a long career as a potter, who specializes in animal sculpture.

Thirty years ago, Linda moved to New Mexico with her partner John Rohovec, a native New Mexican. She immediately bought a horse to explore the area. She found she was living in the best horse country imaginable. She and John opened Blue Dome Gallery, then 10 years ago with a group, bought Bear Mountain Lodge in Silver City. They expanded the Bear Mountain Lodge to include a cafe, gallery, outside sculpture walk, and opened the trails to the public. They have horses, cows, chickens and dogs in addition to all the wildlife on the property that borders the Gila National Forest. Her other passion is Mongolia (can’t go wrong with a country where the animals out number the people.) New Mexico and Mongolia face many of the same issues of land use, population, and tourism.

The post Bear Mountain Cook Book appeared first on Southwest Word Fiesta™.

50 Flying Stories provides the reader just what the name implies. This memoir depicts highlights of the author’s aviation career in story form. Each chapter contains an incredibly entertaining and often humorous tale followed by an insightful perspective of a hard-learned lesson. Written from a pilot’s viewpoint, this book relates, in chapter form, actual experiences from Captain Roth’s aviation career. Along the way, he shares knowledge and expertise garnered from a lifetime of flying and experiences from other aviation professionals.

Poised to entertain and teach, each of the 50 Flying Stories’ chapters contain a concluding “Moral of the Story” explicitly detailing how to avoid an often-lethal threat to pilots and their passengers.

The post 50 Flying Stories appeared first on Southwest Word Fiesta™.