Released: January 5, 2026
Authors include Jamie Figueroa, Swati Avasthi and Ramona Emerson. Sessions begin Feb. 18
Pre-register at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SFCCWriGenSpring26
Santa Fe Community College’s Library and Creative Writing program present the free online Spring 2026 Writing Generation (Wri-Gen) Series beginning Feb. 18 led by esteemed authors. Each author will read at an introductory session. In a follow-up Zoom meeting the author will engage the participants in a writing exercise/creative session. Attendees can go to any of the sessions by registering just once at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SFCCWriGenSpring26. The sessions begin at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays and will feature these writers: Jamie Figueroa (Feb. 18 reading; Feb. 25 creative session), Swati Avasthi (March 18 reading; March 25 creative session) and Ramona Emerson (Apr. 22 reading; Apr. 29 creative session).
At the end of the semester participants will have an opportunity to share their work during the final Zoom session on May 6. Registrants will receive a Zoom link via email the morning of each event.
SFCC Library Director Valerie Nye and SFCC professor of English and Creative Writing Austin Eichelberger are coordinating the free Writing Generation Series, which began in Spring 2024.
Nye said, “As a librarian, I love seeing people discover their voices through this series. The Wri-Gen Series invites participants into a welcoming, creative space where they can learn from New Mexico writers, respond to prompts, and build confidence in their writing. The closing reading each semester is always moving and memorable.”
Eichelberger added, “These events are about giving people space and inspiration to write. We’re excited to offer this series that gives the online community an opportunity to engage with creative writers while developing their own voices.”
The public is welcome to attend one or all sessions. Since the Wri-Gen series began more than 100 people have attended the free online sessions.
Spring 2026 Wri-Gen featured Author Jamie Figueroa
Jamie Figueroa
- Reading: 6 p.m. February 18
- Creative Session: 6 p.m. February 25
Bio: Jamie Figueroa is a critically acclaimed writer whose work interrogates lineage, colonial legacy, and the poetics of place. A passionate storyteller drawn to the sacred, the broken, and the luminous, she believes in the power of story to reclaim, reimagine, and heal—and is most alive when helping others uncover the language of their own truths. With deep roots in her Boricua/Puerto Rican (Afro-Taíno) heritage and a life lived in northern New Mexico, she explores themes of lineage, memory, and cultural reclamation through her writing.
She is the author of the novel Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer (Catapult, 2021), praised by The New York Times Book Review as “a beautifully crafted, poetic book,” and by Publishers Weekly as “brimming with spellbinding prose, magical elements, and wounded, full-hearted characters that nearly jump off the page.” The novel was an Indie Next Pick, longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, shortlisted for the Reading the West Debut Fiction Award, and selected as a Good Morning America Book Club Must-Read. It was also named one of the most anticipated debuts by Electric Literature, The Millions, Bustle, and The Rumpus.
Her genre-defying memoir-in-essays, Mother Island: A Daughter Claims Puerto Rico (Pantheon, 2024), continues her exploration of ancestral memory and cultural reclamation. The book received a starred review from Kirkus and was named one of the Los Angeles Times’ “6 Books to Shake Off Colonialism and Rethink Our Latino Stories.” It has been recognized as one of the most anticipated and essential nonfiction books of 2024 by Ms. Magazine, Elle, SheReads, Lupita Reads, Hispanic Executive, and Latinx Publishing.
Figueroa’s essays and fiction have appeared widely, including in The New York Times, McSweeney’s, Elle, American Short Fiction, Emergence Magazine, Agni, The Boston Review, and Kweli Journal, among others. She wrote her first poem at six, published her first poem as a teenager, and committed fully to a life centered around her writing practice in 1998. A devoted teacher of craft and creative courage, she is on faculty at the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA Creative Writing program and has taught in public schools, colleges, community spaces, and universities nationwide since 2010.
A Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) alum and faculty member, she has received a Truman Capote Award and was named a Bread Loaf Rona Jaffe Scholar. Figueroa also served on the Carol Shields Prize Authors Committee, helping shape one of the most significant literary prizes for women and nonbinary writers of North America for the initial four cycles of the prize.
Figueroa is currently in her third year of doctoral studies in Visionary Practice and Regenerative Leadership at Southwestern College, where the heart of her research is on Creative Sovereignty through the lens of a Cuentista/Curandera. Her work poses a profound question to writers at all stages of their journey: “When you sit down at your desk to write, who owns you?”
Spring 2026 Wri-Gen featured Author Swati Avasthi
Swati Avasthi
- Reading: 6 p.m. March 18
- Creative Session: 6 p.m. March 25
Bio: Swati Avasthi (SWA-thee Of-US-thee) started writing when she was five, but she took a serpentine career path (working as domestic violence legal coordinator, a law student, a theater director and stage manager) before she returned to writing. Her first novel, SPLIT (Knopf, 2010) received the International Reading Association Award, Cybils Award, received recognition from 15 US state awards committees, and has been translated into four languages. Her second, CHASING SHADOWS received several starred reviews from School Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and was listed as a Best of 2013 by Kirkus, Bank Street College, and YALSA. Swati holds a BA from The University of Chicago and an MFA from University of Minnesota. She teaches at Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her two dogs, two kids, and one husband – though he’s worth two.
Spring 2026 Wri-Gen featured Author Ramona Emerson
Ramona Emerson
- Reading: 6 p.m. April 22
- Creative Session: 6 p.m. April 29
Bio: Ramona Emerson is a Diné writer and filmmaker originally from Tohatchi, New Mexico. She received her degree in Media Arts in 1997 from the University of New Mexico and her MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) in 2015 from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She has worked as a professional cinematographer, writer, and editor for over thirty years and is currently working on her eighth and ninth film project, Crossing the Line and Through Her Lens. She is an Emmy nominee, a Sundance Native Lab Fellow, a Time-Warner Storyteller Fellow, a Tribeca All-Access Grantee and a WGBH Producer Fellow. Ramona just released her second novel, Exposure, the follow-up to her debut novel Shutter, which was published by Soho Press in 2022 and longlisted for the National Book Award, a finalist for the PEN Hemingway, PEN Open Book and Edgar Awards among others. She currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she and her husband/producer, Kelly Byars run their production company Reel Indian Pictures. Ramona is also an Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico in the department of Film and Digital Arts.
Participant Reading
- 6 p.m. May 6 participant reading
The Participant Reading will allow those who’ve attended the series to share some of their personal writing inspired by the series.
For additional information about the series, please contact SFCC Library Director Valerie Nye via email at valerie.nye@sfcc.edu or call 505-428-1506. For more information about SFCC’s Creative Writing program visit https://www.sfcc.edu/programs/creative-writing/.
For more than 40 years Santa Fe Community College has been the pathway to success for individuals and the community. SFCC provides affordable, high-quality programs that serve the academic, cultural, and economic needs of the community. The college welcomes over 10,000 students per year in credit, noncredit, workforce training, personal enrichment, and adult programs.
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Visit sfcc.edu or call 505-428-1000.
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