A note from Camilla Feibelman, Director of Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter:
As the last weeks of the legislative session pressed on, I started to imagine, on the one hand, the balm we’d all need when it was done and, on the other hand, the grounding in the reality of whether what we achieved would be enough. Michelle Otero and Laura Paskus’s names came to my mind. My husband had ordered Michelle’s new book of poems and it sat on my bedside as the promise of a leisurely spring time read that wouldn’t be interrupted by the urgent call to testify or count votes. Laura’s book came to my mind as I saw our key Climate Solutions and Produce Liquid Waste bills fail even as we moved key issues forward on trapping, Gila protection, community solar and air stringency bills passed.
Both Michelle and Laura’s books speak to the urgency of this moment and the hope that the natural world and our relationship can provide. So as we begin Earth Month, with as much pressing need and reason to keep hoping, as ever, I hope you’ll join us. This free event is online Thursday, April 8 starting at 5 pm.
Michelle Otero is the author of Malinche’s Daughter, an essay collection based on her work with women survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Oaxaca, Mexico as a Fulbright Fellow, and Bosque: Poems (University of New Mexico Press, 2021), a collection written during her tenure as Albuquerque Poet Laureate. Her memoir, Vessels is forthcoming from FlowerSong Press. She is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop.
Please get your copy of Michelle’s book at Bookworks, Organic Books, Harvest Moon Books, Collected Works or UNM Press.
Laura Paskus is a longtime environmental reporter based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Currently, she is the environment reporter for New Mexico PBS, and produces the monthly series, “Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present and Future.” Her book “At the Precipice: New Mexico’s Changing Climate,” was published in September 2020 by the University of New Mexico Press.
Paskus has been a journalist since 2002, when she began her career at High Country News. She has freelanced for local, regional, and national outlets and also worked as managing editor for Tribal College Journal, a publication of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, as a reporter and producer for KUNM-FM in Albuquerque, and as the environment reporter for New Mexico Political Report. She also edits New Mexico-based stories about the oil and gas industry and climate change for Capital & Main. She’s a board member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and formerly served as president of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Please get your copy of Laura’s book at Bookworks, Organic Books, Harvest Moon Books, Collected Works, Garcia Street Books or UNM Press.
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