Southern New Mexico Book Festival

Las Cruces Writers invites published authors and the public to join in the First Annual Southern New Mexico Book Festival, a free event debuting on Saturday, October 11, 2025, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The event will be held at the Dona Ana Community College, East Mesa Campus, 2800 Sonoma Ranch Blvd. in the DASR Building. Authors from Southern New Mexico and beyond will host writing workshops, author readings, book sales and signings.

As an extra treat, the Book Festival will include an area for kids’ book readings, giveaways and activities, as well as food trucks with delicious local offerings.

The goal of the SNM Book Festival is to connect writers, readers, publishers, editors, and the public, all in one place. According to the SNM Book Festival Director, Frank Lopez, “The writing and publishing talent in southern New Mexico and beyond is amazing. We live in one of the most prolific areas for authors in the Southwest. Our Las Cruces Writers group is thrilled to offer this first-time Book Festival, and we are very much looking forward to meeting in person great New Mexico authors and people from the surrounding communities.”

Attendees from out of town can take advantage of group rates at the following hotels.
TownePlace Suites for $139 with free breakfast
Holiday Inn Express North for $129 with free breakfast

Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/snmbookfestival

Sponsors

Author Readings

Author Vendors

Workshops

Children’s Activities

Sponsors

More sponsors coming soon

Author Readings

Charmayne Samuelson

Mata Ortiz Poetry of the Clay: Pottery, Poems, Artists, is a bilingual photo book featuring the pottery of 24 contemporary Mata Ortiz potters paired with original poetry by the author.

Charmayne Samuelson is an Award-Winning Author and a member of the prestigious Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She writes in the genres of fiction, non-fiction, biography, children’s books, photography and self-help, and has published 11 titles.

Steve Mclary

Tales of the Killala Clan consists of four novellas about people with special abilities. One of them sees the ghosts of dead dogs. The book features four dead dogs and one live one.

Steve Mclary is a mostly retired attorney, who lives in Las Cruces with his wife.

Eva Nevarez St. John

When Tough Cookies Crumble: A True Story of Friendship, Murder, and Healing is about Eva Nevarez St. John’s friendship with a fellow soldier in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When her friend Janice Starr disappeared in the fall of 1981, Eva initiated an investigation with a female detective. Together they fought for justice for Janice. Forty years after Janice’s death, they reconnected to tell her story.

Eva Nevarez St. John was an Army brat, soldier, lawyer, and nonprofit manager. She continues to be a nonprofit consultant, social activist, writer, genealogist, mother and grandmother. This is her first memoir.

Frank López

Colores, Sabores y Dichos presents art, culture and love by using colorful photographs, delicious recipes and fun dichos in English and Spanish. It is a heartfelt collection of over 50 colorful photographs that invite the reader to imagine 50 different stories. The essays by Rosa Guerrero and Frank Rene López take the reader into the experiential world of culture and art. The book serves as a gentle reminder that love can be found in small and meaningful gestures in any given day.

Frank Rene López is a leadership coach, capacity builder, writer and artist.

Carol Potenza

Echo of Lies is Book #2 in the Lies Series, is a standalone story about a young woman struggling to hold onto her father’s ranch after his disappearance. A strange object crashes on her land, there is a soldier with secrets, a web of time anomalies, alien artifacts, and hidden truths. It is a story of self-discovery, courage and the power to change one’s own destiny.

Carol Potenza is a biochemist, who loves the combination of strong women sleuths, paranormal, and murder, mixed with science or, as she likes to call it, BiocheMystery. She sets all her books in the beautiful state of New Mexico, where she lives with her wonderful husband, Leos.

Rosemary Matos

Promises from Cuba is the true story of one family trying to keep order and love in their lives amid difficult circumstances during the quickly changing period of the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s and 1960s.

Speedie Pedie is an adventurous bunny who loves to run. He gets into tight spots but with wit and speed he escapes. You can read the story, then color each page.

The Porter Family’s Very BIG ADVENTURE is about a family of ducklings who gets lost in the city. A rescue is on the way.

Rosemary Matos writes poetry, non-fiction, children’s stories and memoirs.

Jan Thomas

Mesilla Traveler: In Search of Peace is a historical romance novel about a soldier who fought in the Mexican-American war and finds himself in Mesilla, where an unfortunate incident leads him to find love.

Jan Thomas is a retired prison warden, artist and writer who volunteers in prison ministry. He is a native New Mexican who has lived most of his life in southern and southwestern New Mexico.

George Pintar

Suppose Trees Could Talk by George Pintar and Jan Thomas is an exploration of the quiet wisdom and enduring strength of older people through the metaphor of trees.

George Pintar is a prolific writer who has published thirty-one fictional short stories and four nonfiction books. He is best known for his fictional character Chile Charlie. You can see Jan Thomas’ bio above.

Abbey Carpenter

In The Tortilla Star, Bette finds love with Marco, an undocumented immigrant who introduces her to a new culture, customs, fiestas, family, poverty and racism.

Abbey Carpenter has worked, taught and volunteered in the areas of social justice and environmental sustainability. She is co-author of Dora: A Daughter of Unforgiving Terrain with Dora Rodriguez, which was released in July 2025.

Carlos Melendrez

I Know Where the Bodies Are Buried: There Are Stories to Tell, Questions to Ask, True Exciting Tales of The Founding Family of Las Cruces describes the good, the bad and the ugly of southern New Mexico.

Carlos Melendrez is the great, great grandson of Pablo Melendres, who founded Las Cruces in 1849. He is a life-long civil rights advocate and author of America Don’t You Know Me, I’m Your Native Son Geronimo: The Controversial Campaign To Repatriate The Remains of America’s Most Famous Warrior to His Homeland.

Tanya Dawson

Anderson Light: A Meta-Normal Novel is a young adult coming-of-age, superhero, fantasy, and science fiction adventure. A bullying incident catapults Georgie Jones’ life into a fantastical new world. Her life changes forever when she learns from Luther Andersen, a family friend, mystic and professor, that she is meta-normal.

Tanya Dawson finds writing bright, beyond-normal fiction for YA readers is “way more fun” than her previous work writing cybersecurity policies and documentation. She is currently working on a book tentatively titled Winter Soulstice: A Meta-Normal Novel.

Carlota Caulfield

Aligrafías/Wingraphies is a bilingual poetry book about twenty-one New Mexican birds, with illustrations. The poems communicate the personalities of each bird, letting the reader get to know each of them and what they want to tell us.

Carlota Caulfield is a poet, translator, scholar and literary critic. She is the author of several other books and has received numerous awards.

Amy Bennett

No Lifeguard on Duty is A Black Horse Cozy Mystery. Corrie Black, owner of the Black Horse Campground in Bonney County, New Mexico, finds the body of a young woman in her campground pool. She is determined to find who murdered her and is using the campground as a base for illegal activities, despite resistance from Bonney County Sheriff Rick Sutton and former police lieutenant J.D. Wilder.

Amy Bennett is the author of the Black Horse Cozy Mystery series. She has written a total of nine books and is working on her tenth. She is also a vino slinger at Noisy Water Winery in Ruidoso, New Mexico and lives in Bent, New Mexico with her husband and son.

Desiree Bustamantes

Tell Me All About You is the first in a series of books for children that follows a charming little girl named Rosie along a journey of emotion recognition and identifying the root cause associated with the feelings she is experiencing.

Desiree Bustamantes is a school psychologist who serves students from Pre-K to 12^th grade. She grew up in the quaint little town of Mesilla.

Sandra Aguirre-Magaña

Xóchitl y Papalotl is an early middle grade picture book about 10-year-old Xóchitl’s adventure through the Forbidden Forest. Remembering the legend that helping a butterfly grants a wish from the goddess Xochitlquétzal, she helps a monarch butterfly to its sanctuary in Michoacán, Mexico. On her journey, she faces El Cucuy, a tricky boogeyman. Can she outsmart him and return home safely?

Sandra Aguirre-Magaña is an international bilingual storyteller, educator, and author. Her stories stem from a proud Tepehuan storytelling culture and tradition inspired by her grandmothers. Recently, her short story, Dancing with the Devil, was selected to represent the State of Texas in the Anthology The Haunted States of America.

Fenton Kay

In Dear Jennifer: The Jenny Princess Letters, Jennifer’s dad writers her letters about how she became Jenny Princess. Other letters talk about her teddy bear Bear, her talking dog Scruffy and a parakeet named Clarence.

Fenton Kay is a biologist and author. He has published novels in the O’Flaithearta Biological Consultants Mystery Series, young adult stories and poetry.

Kathy Armstrong Pudil

Serengeti Pals on the Serengeti Plain is a children’s book about three animal friends who learn to play nicely with one another. The book introduces plants, animals and locations on the Serengeti Plain.

Kathy Armstrong Pudil is a teacher who wrote this book when she was teaching Geography to middle schoolers as an example of a research project that could serve a purpose. The students read these learning stories to Kindergarteners. Kathy has been writing stories for a long time and has published two other children’s books.

Juanita Quiñones Gándara

The Magical Journey of Little Raquel “La Churros” is the story of a child moving from Juarez, Mexico to the U.S. With the love and encouragement of her family, she overcomes the struggle to fit in, while embracing her heritage. It is a story of resilience, family, and the beauty of diversity.

Juanita Quiñones Gándara was born in Juarez, Mexico and raised in El Paso, Texas. She is a retired bilingual teacher/school counselor, educational consultant, founder of the Social Emotional Learning System, author, storyteller, and migrant advocate.

Author Vendors

All authors who are doing readings will be selling and signing their books throughout the Festival.

The New Mexico Book Association will be selling its members’ books and offering its popular NMBA Online Catalog at the Festival.

The following authors are not doing readings. They will be selling and signing their books throughout the Festival.

Bailey Herrington

Donnell Bell

Sara Hernandez

Lauren Teffeau

Eide Nevets

Amy Briggs

Kay Leyda

Workshops

Crescit Eundo and Friendship: Growing a Community through Writing Workshops
Presented by: Mark Esperanza
	Open to all ages and experiences. Why are community writing workshops important? How does one start a program in one’s hometown? How do you create engaging lessons and presentations to keep guests learning and growing in their personal literary pursuits? I’ll be sharing the methods, tips, and lessons I’ve learned hosting workshops for the Rio Grande Valley.

Social Media Marketing for Authors (Who Would Rather Be Writing)
Presented by Saleema Ishq
Social media marketing is an invaluable (and free!) tool for connecting with readers, but I understand it can feel overwhelming for those who might not know where to begin. This presentation is designed for authors of all levels with the intention of making social media marketing as sustainable and stress-free as possible.

Social The Middleground Method, a practical way to help students  write free verse
Presented by Benjamin Green
	Introduction to the Middleground Method, a question and answer guidance that avoids the blank piece of paper fear and the boredom of fill in the blank exercises. What is a poem, how does one get written. A group poem will demonstrate the method. Intended for teachers, but all writers interested in poetry can benefit (including children and elders). Basic writing experience required.

Curious Details Of A Time We Never Knew: Researching the Historical Novel
Presented by Mary L. Grow
How does a writer capture a vivid past while moving the story forward? This workshop will explore research methods, queries, and inspiration that inform literary fiction and memoir. Mary L. Grow, author of NIGHT TRAIN TO ODESSA (Studio17 Press, 2023), will discuss how she turned the pages of history into an award-winning novel. This workshop is intended for writers of fiction and memoir and will be pitched to anyone beyond the age of 14. Readers who wish to understand the creative writing process may also be intrigued.

Navigating Trauma in Writing
Presented by Lynn Schmidt
	This generative session will be lead by Lynne Schmidt, a mental health professional who has a focus in trauma informed care and emotion focused therapy. Memoirists, creative nonfiction writers, and poets will develop skills around grounding when faced with traumatic memories, and how to write through it. Three to four prompts will be offered, as well as space for sharing small segments as comfortable.

Coming Soon

Children’s Activities

Book giveaway

Activities

Vamos Niños Mobile Museum