The Last Word: Conversations with Writers

Do you experience synchronicities, take a last-minute chance or change your mind for the better (or worse)?  Then Christopher Murphy’s memoir, Close Calling: An Unplanned Life is a book you will relish and nod along with.  Funny, true and a bit naughty, filled with his life of adventurous derring-do’s and plenty of derring-don’ts, Christopher is way beyond the veritable cat with nine lives, Yachts...

Today, we celebrate the 40th Anniversary edition of Santa Fe on Foot: Walking America’s Favorite City with locally-beloved author, Elaine Pinkerton Coleman. Now in its brand new fifth edition, Santa Fe on Foot has been diligently updated to include newer neighborhoods and near-town trails. The lovely, original illustrations, hand-drawn maps and unexpected historical details still delight readers....

An honor to be with the twenty-fifth Poet Laureate of the United States, Arthur Sze, to discuss his extraordinary signature project as Poet Laureate, Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry. A beautiful and concise volume that celebrates the language of poetry from ancient to modern times around the globe. Arthur is joined by gifted writer and translator, Kareem James Abu-Zeid who will be one of s...

An insightful and very relatable conversation with thirty-fifth generation New Mexican, Deb Haaland, discussing her memoir, “A Voice Like Mine.”   Before she led the State Democratic Party to victory, served in the US House of Representatives and was appointed by Joe Biden to Secretary of Interior, Deb Haaland’s life was often filled with daunting personal challenges that tested her faith and cour...

Twenty-five years ago, Jane Buyers held a critical banking position with J.P. Morgan Chase in Lower Manhattan and witnessed the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center. Her intimate and gripping memoir, Eight Septembers: A Woman on Wall Street from 9/11 to Lehman, chronicles not only that day’s events but how she and her team-all in shock-helped to secure the worldwide banking system in the sub...

Is there really a difference between actual physical fear and everyday irrational fears?  Our body may not recognize any difference and prepares to defend itself in the same ways. So surmises Toltec Nagual, don Miguel Ruiz Jr. in his new book The Poisoned Arrow: A Toltec Guide to Overcoming Fear, a small and very readable guide largely based on his own personal experiences and those of his beloved...

A gorgeous show today exploring the life and music of the brilliant Henry Mancini. Santa Fe author Stacia Raymond takes us on a journey with The Pink Panther, Peter Gunn and gracefully along Moon River in her delicious biography, Grace Notes, a novel based on the life of Henry Mancini. Known as Hank to all his many friends, he was a many-layered man not just of rare musical talent but of integrity...

Pay close attention listeners because Your Data Will Be Used Against You. That’s the alarming title of George Washington University Law School Professor Andrew Guthrie Ferguson’s extremely timely new book. With the subtitle, Policing in The Age of Self-Surveillance, we explore the growing dangers and opportunities, rights (and wrongs) in this age of personal devices that we enjoy to track our live...

Make sure you have some tasty food to look forward to when you listen to today’s interview with noted author Hafeez Lakhani.  His new novel, Abundance, is in many ways an honoring of all the hard-working immigrant families who form the backbone of our cities and towns and contribute to our rich cultural milieu with their traditions, beliefs, music and food. A multi-layered story for our time writt...

Fascinating conversation with multi-award-winning poet Donald Levering ahead of the multi-media production of Man-Moth & The Gospel of Possibility.  Collaborating with artist Barbara Mehlman, musicians Gary Barton and Joe West, Donald Levering and a creative team plan to intrigue, astonish and entertain by presenting the Man-Moth poems in their unique, “prespeak-swapout-repeat-doubledown” styl...

Honoring National Poetry Month beginning with Santa Fe's own Wayne Lee making a return appearance to the KSFR studios.  Wayne has been writing his entire adult life and includes a piece from 1972 in his evocative new collection, Beautiful Foolishness.  Listen deeply as his voice resonates, conjuring images of nature, animals, and of daily life's treasured moments, perceived through his sensitive e...

Hold on tight listeners because today I'm joined by Jack Ratliff with his debut memoir Riding The White Bull: The Making of A Navy SEAL.  What kind of bravado possessed a young man to take on several of the most dangerous occupations in the world from riding the rodeo circuit, battling wildfires and training with the US Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team to become a Navy SEAL?  You’ll be fascinated...

As spring approaches, an intriguing and light-hearted conversation with singer, harpist, composer and author Carol Calvert. As an ordained Bishop in the Independent Catholic Church, a scholar of ancient Celtic spirituality and a member of The Order of Ovates, Bards and Druids, we explore this heady mix of beliefs and practices. And especially her lovely book Beitha’s Sound, a delightful “fairy tal...

In the midst of today’s terror and turmoil these 23 minutes with Annie Bloom may help you breathe a little easier as you drop deeply into stillness. Annie, who has been a wilderness guide for 35 years, tells some of her stories in Buffalo Dreamer: A Lifetime of Wilderness Vigils. How do we face our fears alone in the wilderness at night—without our cell phones? How can being immersed in the natura...

“Stronger than hope,” is one way that the incisive and yet gentle writing of NYT best-selling author Terry Tempest Williams has been described.  So I am honored to interview Terry to drop deeper with her into the natural world discussing The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary.  Her storytelling reveals how we can recognize our own “Glorians” in our everyday lives and why that recognition...

Celebrating the beginning of Women’s History Month with bestselling historical novelist Shelley Noble.  Her newest book, The Sisters of Book Row, honors the courageous women of Manhattan’s famous Book Row in the early 20th Century.  Margaret Sanger was founding Planned Parenthood and many women she mentored furthered her work by discretely supporting the health and wellbeing of women of childbeari...

An ever-deepening conversation with New Mexico Poet Laureate Emeritus Lauren Camp who brings her beautifully resonant poetry to the studio. Her new collection, Is Is Enough, honors her dear father’s life as he gentles into the memory loss of Alzheimer’s Disease while also celebrating his vibrancy. Her exquisite words are for all of us, whole or broken, lost or newly discovering. Now and forever. ...

A heart-opening interview with much loved Santa Fe author Elaine Pinkerton celebrating the re-publishing of From Calcutta with Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard. Twenty-five years ago, Elaine rescued hundreds of her parents’ love letters as they were about to be thrown out and painstakingly sorted them revealing a deep, abiding love.  Beginning as her father sailed to his po...

A disturbingly timely 23 minutes with acclaimed author Christopher C. Gorham on his vivid new biography, Matisse at War: Art and Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France. Why timely, you ask, listen to Christopher’s insights during this far-ranging interview that compare the harrowing time in Europe more than 80 years ago and perhaps now. Also like then, art and beauty and the perceptive vision of maste...

A wonderful interview with bestselling mystery author Anne Hillerman prior to receiving another award, this time the Richard Harris Award on behalf of her father, legendary author Tony Hillerman.  Listen for an especially personal moment when Anne answers the question about whether her Dad knew she would continue his Navajo detective series after his passing. The Richard Harris Award is given by t...

A deep, intimate and gentle dive into the journey of a mathematician, loved educator and writer into the Buddhist teachings of mindfulness.  Richard Brady joins me with his new book, Short Journey Home: Awakening to Freedom with Thich Nhat Hanh.  Richard’s immersion in Judaism, Buddhism and the Quaker tradition uniquely prepare him practice and teach Mindfulness to educators and students even as h...

What makes a fantasy writer tick, how does imagination soar and land on the pages of a real, live book?  Molly O’Sullivan joins me with her debut novel The Book of Autumn hidden away among the red mesas of northern New Mexico at a mysterious college of magic and witchcraft.  Somewhere near Taos she hints.  Warning: don’t try to take a day trip there to find the school, even with GPS. But do find h...

Fascinating insights into the “storied and wild mind” of author, playwright, poet and performer John Biscello with his latest book The Last Furies.  Our far-ranging conversation takes us from his home in the “grunge-wonderland” of Taos to lands of fables and myths and even deeper into lucid dreamscapes real and imagined, awake and asleep. Spending 23 minutes with John convinces me that science fic...

From her Irish roots to living remotely in Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains to perceiving the beauty in New Mexico’s Land of Enchantment, Renata Golden’s essays bring us home to what really matters in each of our lives.  Her exquisite collection, Mountain Time: A Field Guide to Astonishment deserves a place on your bedside table or in your backpack, a slender volume to treasure.  Our sweet conversat...

A true joy to be joined in the studio today by internationally acclaimed naturalist, filmmaker and contributor to numerous respected journals and news media, Priyanka Kumar. Today, she brings her treasured and beautiful volume, Conversations with Birds described by Publishers Weekly as, “A delightful ode to birds and a powerful defense of the planet we share with them….” Conversations with Birds a...