Extend your experience with Literary Day Trips and Community Events.
Santa Fe’s fabled blue skies and fresh air inspire festivalgoers to take a deeper dive into the city and its northern New Mexico environs. Literary Day Trips and Community Events give festivalgoers the chance to extend their stay, join an author, and experience the area’s cultural treasures and spectacular landscapes.
Literary Luncheon at La Quinta
with author Deborah Jackson Taffa
Los Poblanos Farm, Albuquerque
Wednesday, April 9
10:30 A.M. (registration), 11:30 A.M. (talk)
$85
Join us at La Quinta for our first Literary Luncheon of 2025 with renowned local author Deborah Jackson Taffa. A featured author at this year’s Santa Fe International Literary Festival (May 16–18, 2025), Deborah will speak about her memoir Whiskey Tender, which was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award.
Whiskey Tender traces how a mixed-tribe Native girl—born on the California Yuma reservation and raised in Navajo territory in New Mexico—comes to her own interpretation of identity, reflecting on the past and present, both personal and historical. The book is a sharp and thought-provoking work laced with humor and heart.
Registration opens at 10:30 a.m. The talk will begin at 11:30 a.m., followed by a light three-course lunch.
A paperback copy of Whiskey Tender is included in the ticket price. Hardcover copies and additional related titles will also be available for purchase from our friends at Bookworks before and after the event.
Writing on the Rails
Sky Railway with Hakim Bellamy
Thursday, May 15, 7:10–9:40 P.M.
$49
In partnership with the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, join the Sky Railway for “Writing on the Rails” on the evening of Thursday, May 15, for a mini writing retreat led by Albuquerque’s inaugural poet laureate, Hakim Bellamy.
Riders will experience the gift of dedicated time and space to write prose and poetry, led by Hakim’s writing prompts and inspired by breathtaking scenery as the train travels through a high-desert sunset. This is your chance to meet fellow writers and contribute your own literary voice to the conversations happening throughout the Literary Festival community.
The train departs and returns to the Santa Fe Depot. Each ticket includes a seat in an enclosed train car and a complimentary champagne welcome as the literary adventure begins. Additional snacks and drinks can be purchased.
School for Advanced Research Literary Days
Friday, May 16, and Monday, May 19
$60
In collaboration with the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, SAR presents two Literary Days. Walk where writers once walked and hear their words on a guided literary tour. Listen to readings by emerging writers from the Institute of American Indian Arts Creative Writing Program on Friday, May 16, and by established New Mexican writers on Monday, May 19.
Friday, May 16, Morning: 10 a.m.–1:30 p.m. 10:00 a.m.: Guided Literary Tour of the SAR Campus
12:00 noon: Lunch and readings by emerging writers from the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA Creative Writing Program in the Dobkin Boardroom
Friday, May 16, Afternoon: 12 noon–4 p.m. 12:00 noon: Lunch and readings by emerging writers from the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA Creative Writing Program in the Dobkin Boardroom
2:00 p.m.: Guided Literary Tour of the SAR Campus
Monday, May 19, Morning: 10 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
10:00 a.m.: Guided Literary Tour of the SAR Campus
12:00 noon: Lunch and readings by New Mexican Writers in the Dobkin Boardroom
Monday, May 19, Afternoon: 12 noon–4 p.m.
12:00 noon: Lunch and readings by New Mexican Writers in the Dobkin Boardroom
2:00 p.m.: Guided Literary Tour of the SAR Camp
Tour registration includes lunch (wrap, salad, and dessert)
Questions: Contact Kat Bernhardt at (505) 954-7230 or bernhardt@sarsf.org
660 Garcia St., Santa Fe, NM, United States
Writing in the Wild
with Katie Arnold
Monday, May 19, 9:30 A.M.–12 NOON
$100
Join bestselling author Katie Arnold for a morning of walking and writing on Santa Fe’s hiking trails. Participants will explore the connection between silence, movement, nature, and the imagination. Walking through the natural world is a form of story gathering and telling, as well as a moving meditation. The deeper one goes into the silence of the forest and mountains, the deeper one goes into the mind. Come walk the trails in search of ideas and inspiration, foraging for stories and a new way of being in the wild.
A longtime student of Zen, Katie will share her way of walking in nature as a way of writing. Her practice, honed over decades as a journalist, author, and elite ultrarunner, is inspired by her long friendship with Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones. This is a generative, process-oriented walking and writing workshop that will include periods of silence as well as reading aloud. Bring a pen and a notebook and your curiosity, as the group will be stopping often along the trail for writing exercises and prompts. All levels of hikers, walkers, and writers are welcome.
Katie Arnold is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Running Home, an ultrarunning champion, and a frequent contributor to Outside magazine and The New York Times. Her latest book, Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World: Zen and the Art of Running Free, was published in 2024.
Write and Release
With Emily Hyland
Monday, May 19, 1:30–3:30 P.M.
$45
Like yoga, writing is a spiritual practice. A blend of yin yoga, process writing and sharing, and energy clearing, this workshop is designed to hold space for emotional release through feeling what is happening in the physical and emotional bodies and allowing those discoveries to emerge on paper and in community.
Time spent together interweaves yoga asana with writing and sharing as an ongoing opportunity to move through vulnerability to experience truth and foster the courage to tell it.
Emily lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she writes and teaches at YogaSource, a beloved local studio that she co-owns and directs. At the end of our time together, engage in dialogue about the writing and publishing process with Emily, and have her sign your book!
The price includes a copy of Emily’s debut poetry collection, Divorced Business Partners: A Love Story.
