Dear Festival Friends,

Here in New Mexico, we have lots to brag about—the history, the food, the views, the permissive speed limits—but we’re especially proud of our writers. From Willa Cather to Cormac McCarthy to Joy Harjo, our beloved state has been home to top-drawer talent in all genres. We’re lucky to host many of them at the Festival, and this year we’re happy to welcome two who have published new books in recent months.

Brandon Hobson is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, but he’s lived in New Mexico for years. His spare and honest writing is most remarkable for what it doesn’t say. Full of the silences, unanswered questions, and unresolved problems that make up real life, his stories are powerfully authentic, and his characters are relatably flawed. “I like ambiguity because much of the world is ambiguous,” he said in an interview with Tin House. “What’s not spoken is often more interesting than what is said.”

Hobson’s novel Where the Dead Sit Talking, a beautiful but raw coming-of-age story about a boy thrust into the Native American foster care system, was a 2018 National Book Award finalist and was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Prize. His 2021 novel The Removed, about a murder that haunts a Cherokee family, was named a best book of the year by Time, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly. Hobson’s latest, released last fall, is The Devil Is a Southpaw, which Booklist described as a “moving, propulsive box of surprises.” It was a finalist for the 2026 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and long-listed for the 2026 PEN/Faulkner Award.

Priyanka Kumar came to New Mexico by way of northern India, and she is one of our most thoughtful and eloquent observers of the natural world. Her 2022 essay collection Conversations with Birds was described by Psychology Today as a “landmark” book that “could help people around the world rewild their hearts and souls.” 

She received similar praise for her latest book, The Light Between Apple Trees, published last fall. Growing up in the Himalayan foothills, Kumar was entranced by forest-like orchards of diverse and delicious fruit, especially apples. These apples seemed worlds away from the tasteless versions found in American grocery stores. Yet on a small patch of woods near her home here in Santa Fe, she discovered a wild apple tree—and the seeds of an odyssey were planted. In The Light Between Apple Trees, Kumar takes us on a journey to rediscover this popular yet mythic fruit. She weaves together science and childhood memories with the apple’s storied history, from its roots in Kazakhstan to Spanish orchards in the Southwest to Thomas Jefferson’s beloved Monticello fruitery. Her forthcoming book The Grassland Queen: An Avian Love Story in the American Plains will be published in November.

We look forward to celebrating Hobson, Kumar, and other local authors not only at the Festival next month but also tonight, at one of the few events that gets us out of stretchy pants, the New Mexico Writers Annual Dinner. To make a donation to this wonderful organization that supports and promotes New Mexico authors, or to grab a last-minute ticket, click here.

COMMUNITY NEWS

Big congrats to Festival author Caroline Fraser, who just won the 2026 Edgar Award for best crime nonfiction for her fascinating and chilling book Murderland, about the possible link between toxic industrial chemical exposure and serial killings. (We are also proud to work with Will Palmer, who copyedited Murderland, as well as this very newsletter.)

Finally, a salute to Festival partner and Santa Fe cultural mainstay the School for Advanced Research. For almost a century, SAR has been a place where writing happens. It hosts plays, poetry readings, and author retreats and is where three of the past four National Book Award winners for nonfiction wrote portions of their books. On Friday, May 15, and Monday, May 18, SAR will offer tours of its historic campus, including lunch and readings by local authors. Click here to register.

REMINDER

Throughout April and May, the Festival is hosting, with Santa Fe’s Sky Cinemas, a series of films featuring the work of 2026 Festival authors. The series continues Wednesday, May 6, with Groundhog Day, written by Danny Rubin, and culminates with No Straight Lines, featuring cartoonist Alison Bechdel. Click here for more info.

Board of Directors
Edward Gale, Chair

Janet Bailey | Juliet Erickson

Andrea Fellows Fineberg | Jenny Kimball

James McGrath Morris | Carmella Padilla

Jenna Scanlan | Mary Sloane

Maria Gale, Ex Officio

Founders
Clare Hertel | Carmella Padilla | Mark Bryant