Michelle Otero | 2026 July
Casita del Norte, Galisteo
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Michelle Otero is the author of Vessels: A Memoir of Borders, Bosque: Poems, and Malinche’s Daughter. A former Albuquerque Poet Laureate (2018–2020), she co-edited the award-winning 22 Poems and a Prayer for El Paso and New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023. Her essays and poetry have appeared in Huizache, Shenandoah, American Poetry Review, POETRY, and The Best of Brevity. As founder of ArteSana Creative Consulting and Gozo: a creative feast for women & nonbinary writers in Oaxaca, she uses storytelling to build community and foster healing. Originally from Deming, New Mexico, she holds a B.A. in history from Harvard and an MFA in creative nonfiction from Vermont College. A member of the Macondo Writers Workshop, she has also worked with the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, engaging elders through poetry. Her work centers memory, justice, and cultural identity across borders and generations.
Michelle's Lecture Thinking Like a Desert: Staying Rooted While Navigating Turbulent Times When: Thursday, July 16th Where: Petchesky Conservation Center, New Mexico Land Conservancy 5430 S. Richards Ave Santa Fe, NM In "Peril," Michelle Otero's poetry collection-in-progress, she explores the shared vulnerability of the desert ecosystem her family has called home for ten generations and the brown, female body. "Peril" is ultimately a plea for compassionate action and a warning that our collective tolerance for violence against the earth and those most at-risk harms not only the targets of that violence, but all of us. She'll invite attendees to consider what is possible when we don’t consider the earth or any of its inhabitants as commodities, but as kin. |
