Sunday, October 6 from 2 PM to 4 PM
Poetry at the Library
By Sarah Kotchian
The Placitas Community Library invites you to an afternoon of poetry on Sunday, October 6, 2024, at 2 p.m., featuring NM poets Hilda Raz, Katherine Seluja and Sarah Kotchian. In recognition of National Mental Illness Awareness Week, some of the poems will honor the role of poetry as a witness to mental health challenges.
Hilda Raz lives in Placitas, New Mexico, and is currently the Series Editor for Poetry at the University of New Mexico Press and Poetry Editor for Bosque Press. Prior to her move to New Mexico, she was the editor of the literary journal Prairie Schooner from 1987 to 2010 and is the founding director of the Prairie Schooner Raz–Shumaker Book Prizes in poetry and short fiction. In 1993 she was named the first Luschei Professor and Editor in the Department of English at the University of Nebraska where she has worked intensively with graduate students in the Ph.D. program. She has published fourteen books as a poet, nonfiction writer, and editor. Her recent books include Letter from a Place I’ve Never Been and List & Story.
Katherine DiBella Seluja is a poet and a micro fiction writer. Her most recent poetry collection, Point of Entry (UNM Press, 2023) focuses on issues of immigration and ancestry. Her previous book, Gather the Night (UNM Press, 2018) is dedicated to her older brother who lived with schizophrenia and substance use disorder. She is co-author with Tina Carlson and Stella Reed, of the award-winning collaborative collection, We Are Meant to Carry Water (3: A Taos Press, 2019). Katherine’s poem, “November Fruit” is on permanent display at the Helen Wurlitzer Foundation as part of the Taos Poetry in Nature project. Recent work can be found in South 85 Journal, Medmic, Cutthroat and Taos Journal of Poetry. Katherine has worked in pediatrics for over 40 years. She is a poetry editor at Unbroken Journal and lives in Santa Fe.
Sarah Kotchian is an Albuquerque writer whose creative work arises from the solitude and beauty of walks in the New Mexico mountains. Her most recent book of poetry, Light of Wings, reflects the abundant beauty of the world and the grief of losses that are at once personal and universal. Camino, her book of poetry and photographs about her 500-mile solo pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, received the New Mexico–Arizona Book Award and the Seven Sisters Book Award. A contributor at the 2019 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and a Pushcart nominee, her writing has appeared in numerous journals and on the podcast “The Unruly Muse.” Mental Health Awareness Week is recognized annually during the first week in October. Begun by an Act of Congress in the US in 1990, this week is dedicated to increasing awareness and education regarding mental health and its challenges. It is part of the larger month-long awareness campaign for depression and mental health screening. October 10th is recognized as World Mental Health Day in over 150 countries and works to stop the stigma against mental illness.
For the flyer of the event, please click here.