Literary Day Trips
Santa Fe’s fabled blue skies and fresh air inspire Festivalgoers to take a deeper dive into the city and its northern New Mexico environs. Literary Day Trips offer the chance to extend your stay and experience the area’s literary treasures and spectacular landscapes.
Los Poblanos Literary Luncheon with Kyle Paoletta
Friday, April 17, 2026, 10:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Cost: $85 per person, which includes a three-course lunch (alcohol excluded) and a paperback copy of American Oasis
Join Los Poblanos and the Santa Fe International Literary Festival at La Quinta Cultural Center at Los Poblanos for a Literary Luncheon with Kyle Paoletta. Paoletta’s celebrated 2025 book American Oasis is an expansive and revelatory historical exploration of the multicultural, water-seeking, land-destroying settlers of the most arid corner of North America: the Southwest. As his journey into this region's history becomes inextricably linked to an exploration of its dependency on water, he begins to ask: Where, ultimately, will cities find themselves once the Colorado River and its branches dry up? Richly reported and sweeping in its history, American Oasis is the story of what one iconic region’s past can tell us about our shared environmental and cultural future.
Registration opens at 10:30 a.m. The talk will begin at 11:30 a.m., followed by a light three-course lunch. A paperback copy of American Oasis is included in the ticket price. Hardcover copies and additional related titles will also be available for purchase from our friends at Bookworks before and after the event.
Writing on the Rails
Thursday, May 14, 2026, 7:10–9:10 p.m.
Cost: $65 per person
In partnership with the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, join us for the second annual Writing on the Rails on the evening of Thursday, May 14. Last year’s event was a sold-out hit, and this year promises to be just as amazing. This year’s mini writing retreat will be co-hosted by Albuquerque’s inaugural poet laureate, Hakim Bellamy, and Logan Phillips, a poet and cultural worker based in Tucson, Arizona, fresh off the release of his new book, Reckon.
Riders will experience the gift of dedicated time and space to write, discuss, and share prose and poetry, led by Hakim’s and Logan’s writing prompts and inspired by breathtaking scenery as the train travels through a high-desert sunset. This is your chance to meet fellow writers and contribute your own literary voice to the conversations happening throughout the Literary Festival community.
Passengers should pack their favorite writing gear, whether analog paper and pens or electronic devices. However, please keep in mind that this train is a classic model with no electrical outlets or Wi-Fi (all the better to keep you in the writing zone).
The train departs and returns to the Santa Fe Depot. Each ticket includes a seat in an enclosed train car and a complimentary champagne welcome as the literary adventure begins. Additional snacks and drinks can be purchased.
D. H. Lawrence in Taos, with Garrett Peck
Thursday, May 14, 2026, 8:45 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Cost: $195 per person (includes transportation by coach and a picnic lunch)
After heavily lobbying D. H. and Frieda Lawrence to visit Taos, society doyenne Mabel Dodge Luhan finally got her wish in late 1922. The controversial British author visited Taos, and Frieda traded the San Cristobal Ranch for the original manuscript of Sons and Lovers. D. H. satirically called Taos “Mabeltown” after his host.
This full-day excursion, led in conjunction with the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, experiences the Lawrences’ time in Taos. Led by author, historian, and tour guide Garrett Peck, we visit the Mabel Dodge Luhan House, the D. H. Lawrence Ranch, and more. A picnic lunch is included. Stops include:
• San Francisco de Asís Church: Arguably the most famous church in New Mexico for its rounded, abstract buttresses that attracted artists such as Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe.
• Mabel Dodge Luhan House: D. H. and Frieda Lawrence stayed in the Pink House guest accommodation in 1922, as did Willa Cather (1925) and Georgia O’Keeffe (1929). We will take a self-guided tour of the amazing Luhan house. (See above right photo, courtesy of Garrett Peck)
• D. H. Lawrence Ranch: The Lawrences lived at this ranch near San Cristobal three times, and Willa Cather and her partner Edith Lewis visited them at the ranch in 1926. Both D. H. and Frieda are entombed there. (See above left photo, courtesy of Garrett Peck)
We will meet at Santa Fe Community Convention Center (Marcy Street entrance) at 8:45 a.m. for a prompt 9:00 a.m. departure, returning by 4:00 p.m.Upon registering, you will receive a list of recommended reading to prepare for this fascinating excursion.
Literary Days at the School for Advanced Research
Friday, May 15, and Monday, May 18, 2026
Cost: $60 per person. Limited to 15 participants per option.
For nearly one hundred years, 660 Garcia Street has been a place where writing happens. Whether the private home of intrepid sisters or a residence where academic scholars and Native American artists live, research, and create, the site that today is the School for Advanced Research (SAR) has fostered plays, puppet shows, poet’s roundups, and Advanced Seminar books. More recently, it is where three of the past four National Book Award winners for nonfiction were scholars and wrote sections of their books.
In collaboration with the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, SAR invites you to our campus to immerse yourself in words written and read right here while walking the grounds and experiencing our rich history.
For two days—Friday, May 15, and Monday, May 18, 2026—we will offer Literary Tours. Choose between morning and afternoon sessions. Walk our campus while learning about its diverse literary history and hearing the words of writers both past and present. At noon, either before or after the tour, join us for lunch in the historic Dobkin Boardroom while listening to readings by writers from the MFA Creative Writing Program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (Friday) and established authors with ties to New Mexico (Monday).
Four registration options (each choice limited to 15 people):
Friday, May 15
Morning option (10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.)
Start with a Literary Tour of the SAR campus at 10:00 a.m.
At noon, enjoy lunch while listening to readings featuring emerging writers from IAIA.
Afternoon option (12:00 noon–4:00 p.m.)
At noon, start with lunch and readings featuring emerging writers from IAIA.
Following the readings, take a Literary Tour of the SAR campus.
Monday, May 18
Morning option (10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.)
Start with a Literary Tour of the SAR campus at 10:00 a.m.
At noon, enjoy lunch while hearing readings from authors with ties to New Mexico.
Afternoon option (12:00 noon–4:00 p.m.)
Start with lunch and readings featuring authors with ties to New Mexico.
Following the readings, take a Literary Tour of the SAR campus.
We encourage you to fully participate in the Santa Fe International Literary Festival and take part in these additional offerings at SAR as bookends that provide a way to enrich your experience with Santa Fe and its literary history.
Questions: Contact Kat Bernhardt at (505) 954-7230 or bernhardt@sarsf.org.
A Wonder Walk at the Galisteo Basin Preserve
[SOLD OUT]
Monday, May 18, 2026, 9:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Cost: $60 per person. All proceeds support Commonweal Conservancy’s perpetual stewardship of the Galisteo Basin Preserve. Limit: 20 people.
You’re invited to join Ted Harrison, founder and president of the Commonweal Conservancy, Barb Groth, founder of the Nomadic School of Wonder, and acclaimed author and environmentalist Rebecca Solnit for a “wonder walk” at the Galisteo Basin Preserve.
Embracing more than 12,000 acres of forested hills, sandstone escarpments, sculpted arroyos, and vast savannah grasslands, the preserve is a nonprofit-owned and managed open space that serves as a place of refuge and sustenance for wildlife and people.
Commonweal Conservancy is hosting an intimate gathering of Santa Fe Literary Festival participants with the goal of strengthening and deepening our individual and collective appreciation of northern New Mexico’s unique high-desert environment.
During our wonder walk with Rebecca, we’ll take time to slow down, breathe deeply, and immerse ourselves in the beauty and spirit of one of Santa Fe’s most scenic, historic, and beloved wildland resources.
We’ll gather at the Cottonwood Trailhead to orient ourselves to the preserve’s history, warm up our senses, walk, notice, sketch, share stories, and widen our perceptual awareness. We’ll walk approximately one mile into the preserve’s interior, with stops along the way, before returning to the trailhead after a time practicing deep observation and reflection. The terrain is gentle, ensuring a non-strenuous, meditative walk/hike experience for participants.
To ensure that our time together is evocative, meaningful, and fun, registration is limited to 20 wonder walkers.
Speaker Series: A Book Talk in the Garden with Priyanka Kumar
Monday, May 18, 2026, 10:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Cost: $50 (ticket only), $82 (ticket and book)
In collaboration with the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, join us for an exclusive experience at Santa Fe Botanical Garden with nationally acclaimed author and naturalist Priyanka Kumar. We will bring together literature, nature, and conversation in one of Santa Fe’s most beautiful settings.
Coffee and light bites will be available as guests arrive, followed by an engaging presentation with Priyanka that concludes with a Q&A session. She will speak about the practice of being a naturalist and the inspiration behind her celebrated nature books, including Conversations with Birds; The Light Between, Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit; and her forthcoming book The Grassland Queen. Afterwards, discover the Garden’s seasonal beauty on a special tour and enjoy all-day access to continue exploring at your leisure.
Tickets include coffee and light bites, a talk and Q&A session with Priyanka Kumar, a special tour, and all-day Garden admission.
The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit can be purchased with your ticket, for collection at the event and signing by the author.
Priyanka Kumar is a nationally acclaimed naturalist and author of Conversations with Birds and The Light Between Apple Trees. Her forthcoming book, The Grassland Queen, will be published in fall 2026. An alumna of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Leopold Writing Program Advisory Council, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Orion, and Sierra. Her honors include an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award and a New Mexico/New Visions Governor's Award.
Limited to 50 guests. Santa Fe Botanical Garden, 715 Camino Lejo, Santa Fe, NM 87505.
