Reading on August 3, 2024 at 5:00 PM at Travel Bug Specialty Book Store, Coffee Shop and Taproom
July 29, 2024
29 July 2024
Hello and welcome to another issue of my very irregular newsletter -
Please join me on August 3, 2024 at 5:00 PM at Travel Bug Specialty Book Store, Coffee Shop and Taproom for a reading from my essay "Mountain Time." This essay tells just one of the many stories of the Chiricahua Mountains on the borderlands of Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico. An excerpt from my new book, Mountain Time: A Field Guide to Astonishment, the essay braids the internal messages of change a mountain might amplify with the stories of past inhabitants of Arizona 's San Simon Valley—stories of homesteaders, ranchers, and miners in nascent territories, spurred west by an expanding economy. Cochise, Juh, Lozen, and the other Chiricahua Apaches who belong to the Chiricahua Mountains as much as the mountains belong to them. European explorers who claimed land in the name of king and destiny. And all those who lived in these borderlands before them, stretching back tens of thousands of years. My story of how I came to live in the Chiricahuas includes the journey of my Irish immigrant grandparents from Cnoc na dTobar ("Hill of Wells," spelled "Knocknadobar" in English) in County Kerry. The stories of these ancestors reverberate like mountain thunder and remind me that I am new here in the Chiricahua Mountains.
I haven't read this essay in public before—I guess because it's so personal. So if you've already heard me read about prairie dogs and pack rats, come hear about the heartbeat message of mountains!
Looking forward to seeing you Saturday at Travel Bug, 839 Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe.
Feedback to my newsletter is always welcome—leave me a note at renatagolden.com and let me know what you would like to chat about in the next issue. In the meantime, stay cool this month!