A Circle of New Mexico Poets

A CIRCLE OF NEW MEXICO POETS

   TEATRO PARAGUAS, 2ND SPACE

                                     NOVEMBER 15, 4-6 PM

            Finishing Line Poets Read Their Work 

            and share experiences from around the world

Top Row (l. to r.): Cheryl Howard (Mimbres Valley), Doug Bootes (Silver City), Kelly Dolejsi (Los Alamos)

2nd Row (l. to r.):  Cynthia McCain (Mimbres Valley), Sarah Wolbach (Santa Fe), Karen Petersen (Santa Fe)

3rd Row: Mary Strong Jackson (Santa Fe), Shelley Armitage (Las Cruces)

 DR. SHELLEY ARMITAGE is Professor Emerita and former Roderick Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso.  A member of the Texas Institute of Letters, she is the author of ten award winning books including her memoir Walking the Llano: A Texas Memoir of Place, a Kirkus starred book, and first book of poems, A Habit of Landscape, a Spur award winner from the Western Writers of America. She lives near the Rio Grande River in Las Cruces, New Mexico and manages the family grasslands near Vega, Texas

Born in Kentucky, DOUG BOOTES lives and works in New Mexico. He holds an MFA in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts and has published two poetry chapbooks, Heliotropic (Finishing Line Press, 2024), and Maelstrom (Boot Leg Press, 2014). Bootes’ poems and prose also appear in Poetry Northwest, Hunger Mountain Review, World Literature Today, New Limestone Review, Connotations Press, jmww, On the Run Contemporary Flash Fiction, The Closed Eye Open: Maya's Micros, and others.

KELLY DOLEJSI's book The Missing Sea will be released  by Finishing Line Press at the end of November. She has published poetry and fiction in numerous literary journals, including North American Poetry Review, Denver Quarterly, The Cincinnati Review, Fifth Wednesday, The Hunger, Broken Ribbon, West Texas Literary Review, Junto, Gravel, Dirty Paws, The Hungry Chimera, Joey and the Black Boots, and The Disconnect. Her poem “Loyalty” was nominated for the Best of the Net, and her contribution to the book, September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond (edited by William Heyen) was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her chapbook, That Second Starling, was published in 2018 by Desert Willow Press. She has also written theatrical plays, newspaper columns, and feature news stories for her local community in Los Alamos, NM. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston.

 CHERYL HOWARD is a poet and visual artist living and working in the Mimbres Valley of southwestern New Mexico.  She studied and worked at the University of New Mexico in the 1960s and 70s.  During those years, she wrote, published, and performed poetry in and around Albuquerque.  Cheryl retired from teaching Sociology for 21 years at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and moved to the Mimbres. She lives on a little more than an acre of land with her border collie and a dozen chickens; she has an Airbnb and a big messy studio. She is a member of the Silver City Art Association, a board member of the Southwest Word Fiesta, and a member of the New Mexico State Poetry Society.  Her first chapbook will be published in 2026 by Finishing Line Press.

 MARY STRONG JACKSON's work has appeared in journals and anthologies in the United States and England. Her chapbooks include, Dreaming in Grief, From Other Tongues, The Never-Ending Poem by the Poets of Everything, Witnesses, No Buried Dogs, Between Door and Frame, and in May of 2025 her full-length book, A Pear-Shaped World was published by Finishing Line Press.  Mary resides near Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

 CYNTHIA McCAIN is a poet living in the Mimbres Valley in Southwest New Mexico. Her work has appeared in print and on-line journals including the Blue Heron Review, the Rumpus, Halfway Down the Stairs, and Timberline Review. Finishing Line Press published her chapbook, The Dream of Falling, in 2020. 

 KAREN PETERSEN has published poetry, short stories, and flash both nationally and internationally.  A former foreign correspondent, in this last decade she has been fiercely devoted to a literary life. Her poems have been translated into Persian and Spanish, and she has been nominated for numerous prizes, including ten Pushcarts, and long listed for the UK's international Bridport Prize, Forward Prize, and Australia's Peter Porter Prize.  In 2023, her chapbook, "Trembling," published by Kelsay Books, won the Wil Mills Award, judged by Annie Finch, and her poem, "The Price of Love," was nominated for Best of the Net.  New work is in The Wallace Stevens Journal, A New Ulster, and The Cimarron Review. Her chapbook, "Wamponomon: The Place of Shells," was released in October 2024, and her latest chapbook, "Influences: The Irish Poems," is out now, September 2025.  More information can be found at: https://karenpetersenwriter.com

 SARAH WOLBACH’S poems have appeared in many journals, including Artful Dodge, Bristlecone, Comstock Review, Dos Gatos Press, Santa Fe Literary Review, Snakeskin, Taos Journal of Poetry, Wild Roof Journal, and Yalobusha Review.. She holds an MFA and a postgraduate fellowship from the Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin. A finalist for the 2023 Banyan Poetry Prize, she also won the fall 2024 Equinox contest. Her chapbook, Eclipse, was recently published by Finishing Line Press. She lived in Mexico for several years and later in New York City. Today, she makes her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.