Anaya, Rudolfo (1937- 2020)
Anaya was an extremely versatile, prolific writer and teacher. His most famous book, Bless Me, Ultima, is beloved favorite in New Mexico and throughout the Southwest. Known for both children's and young adult books, the Sonny Baca mystery series, short stories, plays and poetry, Anaya received the the National Humanities Medal in 2015 and the National Medal of Arts Award in 2021. The Center for Southwest Research, the University of New Mexico's archive, houses his papers and also has made some available online in the Rudolfo A. Anaya Digital Archive.
Chávez, Denise (1948- )
Chávez is a novelist, poet, playwright and educator who lives and works on the U.S./Mexico borderland corridor in southern New Mexico. She is a native of Las Cruces and is active in the arts community there. The King and Queen of Comezón won a 2016 Zia Book Award.
Horgan, Paul (1903-1995)
Horgan won the Pulitzer Prize for history for Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History (1955) and Lamy of Santa Fe: His Life and Times (1976). He wrote more than 40 books of fiction and nonfiction. Most of his fiction is set in the Southwest. Horgan moved to Albuquerque with his family in 1915, and attended the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. He was later the librarian at the New Mexico Military Institute. His papers are at the Sibley Music Library at the Eastman School of Music.
McCarthy, Cormac (1933-2023)
McCarthy is one of the most important American literary artists of the twentieth century. He was a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 1981, won the National Book Award for All the Pretty Horses in 1992 and the Pulitzer Prize winner for The Road in 2007. Blood Meridian is considered his best novel and many of his works have been made into films most notably No Country for Old Men. He moved to New Mexico in the late 1990s.
Momaday, N. Scott (1934-2024)
Author and poet Momaday was born in Oklahoma to Kiowa-Cherokee parents. His parents taught at Pueblo, Navajo and Apache reservations in New Mexico and Arizona. After graduation from the University of New Mexico with a BA in political science, Momaday began writing. In 1969, Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for House Made of Dawn, which is set in New Mexico and California, and draws on his experience living at Jemez Pueblo. In 2007, Momaday was awarded the National Medal of Arts for his novels and essays celebrating Native American art and oral traditions. Momaday has taught at the University of New Mexico and the University of Arizona. He was artist in residence at St John's College in Santa Fe from 2014-2016.
Nichols, John (1940-2023)
Nichols moved to northern New Mexico in 1969, and is best-known for his novel The Milagro Beanfield War, which was made into a movie directed by Robert Redford. Nichols has published 20 books. Author's website
Sze, Arthur (1950- )
Sze is an award winning poet and former professor whose work has appeared in numerous anthologies and his own books. He currently lives in Santa Fe and was the first Poet Laureate for the city from 2006-2008. His 2029 book, Sight Lines, won the National Book Award for Poetry
Silko, Leslie Marmon (1948- )
Silko is a novelist, poet, and essayist, perhaps best known for Ceremony and Laguna Woman. Silko grew up on the Laguna Pueblo, and is the daughter of the renowned photographer Lee Marmon. Silko's writing often explores the complexity of mixed heritage, personal identity, cultural imperialism and women's issue. Silko is a graduate of the University of New Mexico, winner of a 1981 MacArthur Fellowship, and winner of the1994 Native Writers Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award.
Anaya, Rudolfo (1937- 2020)
The Sony Baca mystery series is set in Albuquerque.
Ault, Sandi
Ault's Wild mystery series is set in New Mexico and features Bureau of Land Management agent Jamaica Wild. Author website.
Doss, James D. (1939-2012)
Doss was an engineer at Los Alamos National Lab. He wrote the Charlie Moon mystery series which features a Ute detective/rancher protagonist. Doss lived in Los Alamos and Taos.
Havill, Steven F. (1945- )
Havill lives in Datil, New Mexico. He is the author of several mystery series including the Posadas County mysteries and the Bill Gastner series. He is also the author of several novels of the American West.
Hillerman, Anne (1949-)
Anne Hillerman is a journalist, travel writer, novelist and daughter of the acclaimed mystery writer Tony Hillerman. She collaborated with her father on a guidebook for the Chee and Leaphorn series and continued writing mysteries based on those characters after Tony Hillerman's death in 2008. She is the author of 16 books.
Hillerman, Tony (1925-2008)
Tony Hillerman is best-known for a mystery series featuring Navajo detectives Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn. Hillerman was a native of Oklahoma, and moved to New Mexico in 1952 living first in Santa Fe and moving to Albuquerque in 1966. He strove to create culturally sensitive portrayals of Navajo traditions and culture in his popular books. From 1966 to 1987, he taught journalism at the University of New Mexico which now houses his papers at the Center for Southwest Research. Digital access to his papers is found at the University's e-Hillerman: The Tony Hillerman Portal.
McGarrity, Michael (1940- )
McGarrity is a former Santa Fe County deputy sheriff and police procedural writer. The Kevin Kerney series features locations in modern New Mexico and the protagonist's family history in the state. Author website.
Morrell, David (1948- )
Morrell is best known for the action thriller series, Rambo.The first book in the series is First Blood (1972). Morrell moved to Santa Fe in 1986, and has published several novels set in New Mexico. Last Reveille (1977) is based on Pancho Villa's raid in Columbus, New Mexico. Extreme Denial (1996) is a spy thriller set in Santa Fe. Author website
Page, Jake (1936-2016)
Page was an editor and writer for Smithsonian Magazine, who also wrote many popular books on the natural sciences and anthropology. In the 1980's, he became interested in Native history and culture. Page wrote an article on the theft of sacred artifacts from the Hopi. When the article was rejected by several publishers, he turned the article into a mystery novel, The Stolen Gods (1993), which became a series featuring blind sculptor Mo Bowdre and his half-Hopi girlfriend, Connie Barnes. Page lived in Corrales from the late 1980's-2004.
Satterthwait, Walter (1946-2020)
Satterthwait, a world traveler, is the author of numerous books set in the Western United States including the Joshua Croft mystery series, featuring a Santa Fe private detective.
Taichert, Pari Noskin (1958- )
Taichert lives in New Mexico and is the author of the Sasha Solomon series, which features a public relations consultant in Albuquerque. The series begins with the Belen Hitch.
Tepper, Sheri S. (1929-2016)
Tepper was a prolific writer who wrote in many genres. As A.J. Orde, she wrote the Shirley McClintock Mysteries, and as B.J. Oliphant., she wrote the Jason Lynx Mysteries both set in Colorado.
Thurlo, Aimee (1950-2014) and David
The husband and wife team of Aimee and David Thurlo wrote more 75 novels before Aimee's death. Mystery series set in New Mexico include the Ella Clah series (features a Navajo FBI agent), the Sister Agatha series, and the Lee Nez vampire series. David continues to write and his current series is the Charlie Henry series, starting with the Pawnbroker.
Van Gieson, Judith (1941- )
Van Gieson has published two mystery series. The Claire Reynier series features an archivist at the University of New Mexico; the Land of Burning Heat was a New Mexico State Library pick in 2022. The Neil Hamel series features an Albuquerque lawyer, and two of the titles in the series, Ditch Rider and The Wolf Path, are on the list of 100 Best New Mexico Books.
Charnas, Suzy McKee (1939-2023)
Charnas lived in New Mexico and is a Hugo and Nebula award winning author of science-fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. Her classic work The Vampire Tapestry is partially set in Albuquerque and at the Santa Fe Opera.
Jones, Darynda (1965- )
Jones is the author of the paranormal Charley Davidson series set in Albuquerque as well as several other fantasy and science fiction series. Author website.
Lindskold, Jane (1962- )
Linkskold lives in Albuquerque. She has published more than 15 books of speculative fiction, and is perhaps best known for the Firekeeper Saga, also known as the 'Through Wolves Eyes' series (the title of the first book in the series). Author website.
Martin, George R.R. (1948- )
Martin is best-known for his Song of Ice and Fire series, the basis for HBO's megahit Game of Thrones television series. Martin lives in Santa Fe, and is active in the community. He owns the Jean Cocteau Cinema, and is a supporter of Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary and Meow Wolf.
Tepper, Sheri S. (1929-2016)
Tepper was a prolific writer and winner of the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement who lived near Santa Fe. She wrote poetry, essays and novels in many genres, but is best known for her feminist and eco science fiction such as The Gate to Women's Country (1988) and Beauty (1991). She wrote children's books under the pseudonym Sheri S. Eberhart, horror under the pseudonym E.E. Horlak, and mysteries as A.J. Orde and B.J. Oliphant.
Morrell, David (1948- )
Morrell is best known for the Rambo action thriller series.The first book in the series is First Blood (1972). Morrell moved to Santa Fe in 1986, and has published several novels set in New Mexico. Last Reveille (1977) is based on Pancho Villa's raid in Columbus, New Mexico. Extreme Denial (1996) is a spy thriller set in Santa Fe. Author website
Preston, Douglas (1956- )
Preston is known for his techno-thriller and bio-thriller novels, many of which have been co-authored with Lincoln Child. The Preston-Child writing team is best known for the Pendergast series, which starts with Relic. Mount Dragon (1996), written with Child, is set in New Mexico, as is. Preston's solo novel Tyrannosaurus Canyon. Preston's solo nonfiction includes works set in the southwest: Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest in Pursuit of Coronado (1992), Talking to the Ground: One Family's Journey on Horseback Across the Sacred Land of the Navajo (1996), and The Royal Road: El Camino Real from Mexico City to Santa Fe (1998). Author website
Crook, Elizabeth (1959- )
Crook's 2007 novel of historical fiction set primarily in Texas and New Mexico, The Night Journal is set in Las Vegas, New Mexico and the Pecos pueblo. The Night Journal won a Willa award and a Spur award. Author website.
Evans, Max (1924- 2020)
Evans, a former cowboy, is a painter and author who grew up in Lea County and lived in Albuquerque. He wrote novels and nonfiction about the West, often set in northeastern New Mexico. His novels The Rounders and the Hi-Lo Country were made into films. Evans' novels, The Rounders and Bluefeather Fellini, were named to 2012's 100 Best Books in New Mexico.
