Rising Writers
NM Writers is committed to supporting aspiring writers in New Mexico through its Rising Writers program. Special thanks to Ed and Maria Gale and the Gale Family Foundation for funding Rising Writers for the 2025 through 2028 seasons.
Rising Writers is a chance for aspiring writers to spend time in conversation with an established writer in their chosen genre or with other literary professionals. Rising Writers sessions are held at coffee shops, bookstores, libraries, and nonprofit conference rooms. Both established and rising writers are enthusiastic about the experience and excited to create a supportive writing community. Click the years below to see current and previous session hosts.
See below for information about the upcoming 2026 Rising Writers season.
For questions or comments about the Rising Writers program, please email our Rising Writers Committee Chair, Lucy Moore.
Rising Writers Sessions
Announcing the 2026 Rising Writers season! See below for the scheduled sessions (more to come). We encourage writers and poets of all levels to attend Rising Writers sessions. There will be plenty of time to ask questions and engage in discussion. This is not the place to ask for coaching, mentoring, or help with a manuscript. It is, however, a place for encouragement and inspiration of new voices in our writing community. There is no charge to attend the sessions. Please RSVP for your desired session(s). Attendance is limited, so sign up soon!
September 9 | 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. | Zollinger Library, UNM Gallup, 705 Gurley Ave, Conference Room
Jake Skeets on “Words with a Poet”
Jake Skeets is the author of Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers, winner of the National Poetry Series, American Book Award, and Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and Horses, which was named one of Literary Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026. His honors include a Whiting Award, Mellon Projecting All Voices Fellowship, NEA Grant for Arts Projects, and he was the 2023-2024 Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. He is currently serving as the third Navajo Nation Poet Laureate and teaches in the MFA program at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
While this session is open to the public, please email us to RSVP or with questions.
October 10 | 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. | Albuquerque
Sherri Burr on “Crafting Narrative Nonfiction: Finding the Idea, Researching the Story, and Putting Words on the Page”
Sherri Burr is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, and the Yale Law School. At the University of New Mexico, she became the Dickason Chair and Regents Professor of Law Emerita in 2017 following her retirement from an approximately 30-year career as a full-time law professor. Burr is the prolific author or co-author of over 30 nonfiction law, business, and history books. Her “Complicated Lives: Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619-1865” (Carolina Academic Press, 2019) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in History. Her first memoir, “Living with Nephew: How I Got Voted the Meanest Parent in the World,” was published by RMK Publications in 2026. She is currently working on her next narrative nonfiction history book, “The Qualities of His Heart and the Shackles of the Law: Why George Washington freed his slaves and his wife Martha did not.” To work on this book, she became the inaugural Black Women United for Action Scholar at the George Washington Presidential Library.
The Fall 2025 Rising Writers sessions were hosted by:
- Geoff Habiger ~ Traditional Publishing with an Indie Publisher ~ Albuquerque
- Dr. Manny Loley ~ Saad Bee Hiiná: Writing as Movement and Energy ~ Gallup (via Zoom)
- Pam Lewis ~ Creative Nonfiction: Start With Real Life ~ Santa Fe
- Zahra Marwan ~ Art, Writing, and Traditional Publishing for Unconventional Thinkers ~ Farmington
- JJ Amaworo Wilson ~ Getting Your Book Published ~ Silver City
- D.J. Green ~ From Writer to Author—Getting Your First Novel Published ~ Albuquerque
The Spring 2025 Rising Writers sessions were hosted by:
- John Fayhee ~ Creative Non-fiction and Outdoor Nature Writing ~ Silver City
- Justin Golding ~ Writing Visually for the Screen: Show it, don’t say it, and if you have to say it, don’t show it! ~ Albuquerque
- Sue Boggio and Mare Pearl ~ Working Together: Strategies for Fiction and Non-fiction Projects ~ Albuquerque
- Zahra Marwan ~ Writing and Illustrating Children’s Books ~ Gallup
- Rus Bradburd ~ Writing a Novel and Using Satire ~ Las Cruces
- Byron Aspaas ~ Poetry and Creative Non-fiction – Diné ~ Farmington
The 2024 Rising Writers sessions were hosted by:
- Alexandra Diaz (children, YA)
- Cynthia Sylvester (fiction, hybrid books, poetry)
- Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli (Let’s Talk about Getting Published)
- Joseph Badal (action, mystery, thriller)
- Sandra Blakeslee (Writing about Science & Medicine)
- Sharman Apt Russell (science, nature, personal essay)
The 2023 Rising Writers sessions were hosted by:
- Alexandra Diaz (children, YA)
- Arthur Sze (poetry)
- David Morrell (thriller, mystery, horror)
- Johnny Boggs (western)
- Ron Bloomberg (screen and play writing, directing, producing)
Rising Writers Session Locations
