The Support Santa Fe Gift Guide series features treasures from local shops, makers, and organizations. We’ll be covering food & drink, art, crafts, lifestyle, and philanthropy. Presenting: the Books Edition.
The Support Santa Fe Gift Guide: Books Edition
New Mexico’s vibrant literary culture is on full display this year. With reputable print houses publishers such as Radius Books, UNM Press, and Museum of New Mexico Press, and a bevy of diverse authors, the rich arts and culture of our state are beautifully bound in a number of new books. It goes without saying, but local bookstores could use a boost about now. We encourage you to explore these local titles at local shops when possible—there’s nothing like browsing books in a well-curated shop, something we can’t wait to do again one day.
An Essential Solitude: Walter de Maria’s The Lightning Field, Kathleen Shields
Kathleen Shields served as the administrator for The Lightning Field, a land artwork by sculptor Walter De Maria, for nearly thirty years. Located in Catron County, New Mexico, The Lightning Field (1977) is comprised of 400 polished stainless steel poles installed in a grid measuring one mile by one kilometer. In her new book, Shields shares her perspective on the creation, impact, and context of the work. A must-read for the art-lover on your list.
Available at Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo St, Santa Fe, NM 87501. 505-988-4226.
An Onion My Pocket, Deborah Madison
Santa Fe-based author and chef Deborah Madison adds a memoir to her already lengthy list of accomplishments, which includes fourteen cookbooks and four James Beard Awards. Madison has been at the forefront of reviving vegetable culture since her early days working in the kitchen at Chez Panisse in the 70’s, and has led a rich life which includes decades in the Zen community as an ordained Buddhist priest. Her memoir offers a personal perspective on the changing ways of America’s culinary habits, the revolution of vegetable-forward cooking, and her dedication to locally-sourced food.
Available at Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo St, Santa Fe, NM 87501. 505-988-4226.
Making History: IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Edited by Nancy Marie Mithlo
The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe has been at the center of the contemporary Native Arts movement since its founding in 1962. This new collection of essays, poems, and artworks serves as a vast resource on how to approach Indigenous art from the perspective of Native Americans. Topics include biography, pedagogy, philosophy, poetry, coding, arts critique, curation, and writing about Indigenous art. A collaboration with Albuquerque’s UNM Press, this beautiful book serves up a double dose of local.
Available via University of New Mexico Press, 717 Roma Ave NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106. 505-277-3343.
Pueblo Chico: Land and Lives in Galisteo since 1814, Lucy R. Lippard
Iconic arts writer, curator, and critic Lucy Lippard chronicles the history of Galisteo, where she has lived for twenty-five years. Told among over two hundred historical and contemporary images, Lippard’s stories are based on the memories of the people of Galisteo, including descendants of the original settlers, heirs of the Spanish colonizers, and the Indigenous people who settled the valley, and more. A welcome and necessary reminder of the history of the land we call home.
Available at Garcia Street Books, 376 Garcia St, Santa Fe, NM 87501. 505-986-0151.
Necessary Fictions, Debi Cornwall
Published by Radius Books, Santa Fe’s home of covetable art titles, Necessary Fictions features photographs taken by Debi Cornwall at military bases throughout the United States. Cornwall explores mock-village landscapes in the fictional country “Atropia,” and its roleplayers who act in realistic training scenarios. The book combines her photographs with a variety of texts to provoke critical inquiry about America’s fantasy industrial complex.
Available at photo-eye Books, 1300 Rufina Cir, A3, Santa Fe, NM 87507. 505-988-5152.
My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir, Jenn Shapland
We’re very proud to note that SWC writer Jenn Shapland’s debut novel is a finalist for the National Book Award and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. No small feat. In her novel, Shapland interweaves life stories of beloved American novelist Carson McCullers into her own, exploring how stories are told, and how they form us. As the New York Times Book Review writes, “A hard-won inquiry into how we seek out the truth of ourselves and others in ways that often, by necessity, aren’t straightforward, that arrive in our lives in glimmering bits and shards… Shapland’s book is the kind of state-of-the-form reckoning that makes one wish there were more like it.”
Available at Garcia Street Books, 376 Garcia St, Santa Fe, NM 87501. 505-986-0151.
2021 Gates of New Mexico Calendar, Rachel Preston Prinz / Ministry of Architecture
Should you want to know what day it is, or at least what month, this calendar from local architecture expert Rachel Preston Prinz features gates and doors at sites throughout northern New Mexico.
Available from Ministry of Architecture, intentiondesign@gmail.com.
