Las Cruces Village (formerly Good Samaritan) in the Creative Arts Room, 3011 Buena Vida Circle. Enter through the main administrative building entrance (parking is to the east of the building) and turn left in the first hallway to reach the room.
Yes, it’s official, Charmayne’s MATA ORTIZ POETRY OF THE CLAY Pottery. Poems. Artists: POESÍA DEL BARRO Cerámica. Poemas. Artistas just won the SOUTHWEST BOOK AWARD from the Border Regional Library Association. This represents the 8th award for the tome and is an inspiration for all border region writers and poets, especially since poetry is underrepresented and underappreciated in our modern era.…
In a long night in anxious times, Stanzas clash in metrical rhymes. Enjambments crouch in happenstance Lurking as if spilled by chance. With pens we frame visionary cheer And meet in the light of a frothy new year.
Where
Las Cruces Village (formerly Good Samaritan) in the Creative Arts Room, 3011 Buena Vida Circle. Enter through the main administrative building entrance (parking is to the east of the building) and turn left in the first hallway to reach the room.
When
2:30-4:30 pm, Saturday January 10th, 2026
Agenda
Special Agenda: January is the Poetry meeting month! What does that mean? Bring your poems! Write some poems! Read some poems!
If you haven’t tried writing poetry yet, give it a try. You still have a week. If you have written some things, bring them along to read. If you haven’t and don’t want to, bring a poem from one of your favorite poets and read it.
We’ll also be writing some poems in the meeting with some prompts. Poems poems poems!
It was some tough competition from University Presses and Museums AROUND THE WORLD – so I am proud of our book!
Congratulations to the MATA ORTIZ potters, whose spellbounding work will be seen across the world! This is the SECOND first place award given this year, the first being First Place in the Indie Press Awards!
I am really thrilled and know that an INTERNATIONAL award-winning book about Mata Ortiz pottery means that every potter in Mata Ortiz wins! Somewhere someone will read about the MO Pottery, or will have heard about the potters, will fall in love with MO pottery!
In this new BILINGUAL photo and poetry book, MATA ORTIZ POETRY OF THE CLAY Pottery, Poems, Artists. and the bilingual Spanish title, MATA ORTIZ POESÍA DEL BARRO Cerámica. Poemas. Artististas., Samuelson features the stellar pottery of 24 Contemporary Mata Ortiz potters paired with original poetry by the author. She also includes poetry, thoughts and dreams of the artists.
This book has been hailed as unique and one-of-a-kind, with uplifting poetry about the pottery and the potters. “I often feel very moved,” the author says, “by art that soars above the rest, as does the brilliant Mata Ortiz pottery. I wanted to honor their work with original poetry.”
Samuelson has gone beyond what would be a normal book about pottery by offering bilingual passages throughout the book. “So many books printed in America cannot be read by people who do not speak or read in English around the world, and I wanted people on both sides of our American Southwest “Borderlands” to be able to enjoy this stunning book of photography and poetry,” Samuelson said.
The book is 144 full-color photo pages with poetry, is hardbacked case-laminate, matte finish pages, and 8.25″ x 11″. Samuelson describes the book as a perfect gift for those who have everything, and a perfect coffee-table book to proudly display.
Southern NM’s Desert Exposure arts and culture magazine just selected LCW’s own Karen Ray for Grand Prize for her poem “Flying with Sheets” that recollects the idyll of youth growing up in the desert. It reminded me of hitching those spring winds with a sheet fashioned into a sail and attached to a ten speed, all part of my own crazy, experimental youth.
Multiple winner Efram Carrasco won Prose Honorable Mention for “The Desert Girl,” and many other local writers won awards as well.
A haiga is like a haiku but combines images or paintings with the text of the poem. Fenton’s work, which I had the pleasure of critiquing and editing last year, builds imagery around people, places, plants, and creatures in his world.…
Las Cruces Writers is thrilled that our own Fenton Kay has won Honorable Mention for his poem, “Rainstorm in Juarez,” from Desert Exposure magazine! I can’t publish it here because it is slated for the November/December issue of the magazine, but I give you a consolation poem from Fenton about rain in the desert:
