Leaving Utopia: A Reading and Discussion with Miriam Sagan

Pre-register for the 75-minute online event here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SaganMarch2024

Miriam Sagan will read from and discuss her novella, “Commune of the Golden Sun” (Cholla Needles, 2024). Four young protagonists leave the commune they were raised in in central New Mexico and go out in search of a wider world they’ve been told has been destroyed. They find themselves in the process and heal broken intergenerational relationships.

The second half of the event will be an open discussion on tips for writing the short novel, using magical realism and speculative fiction, and writing a relief in difficult times.

Bio: Miriam Sagan is the author of over thirty books of poetry, fiction, and memoir. Her most recent include Castaway (Red Mountain, 2023) and A Hundred Cups of Coffee (Tres Chicas, 2019). She is a two-time winner of the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards as well as a recipient of the City of Santa Fe Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and a New Mexico Literary Arts Gratitude Award. She has been a writer in residence in four national parks, Yaddo, MacDowell, Gullkistan in Iceland, Kura Studio in Japan, and
a dozen more remote and interesting places. She works with text and sculptural installation as part of the mother/daughter creative team Maternal Mitochondria (with Isabel Winson-Sagan) in venues ranging from RV parks to galleries. She founded and directed the creative writing program at Santa Fe Community College until her retirement.

Zoom invitations for the event will be sent out the morning of the reading. For more information, please contact SFCC Library Director Valerie Nye at valerie.nye@sfcc.edu or 505-428-1506.