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CELEBRATE AUTHORS

Celebrate Authors add three more writers to Sept. 19 event

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A total of 40 local writers will participate in “Celebrate Authors,” which will be held 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 19, in the boardroom and Roadrunner Room on the second floor of Thomas Branigan Memorial Library, 200 E. Picacho Ave.

The event is free and open to the public.

Moonbow Alterations and Moonbow’s Book Nook are the event sponsors.

Celebrate Authors 2021 will feature authors from Las Cruces and surrounding area with books published in 2019, 2020 and 2021. The event began in 2014.

Here are three additions to the list of participating authors.

Christine Eber is the author of “When a Woman Rises” (“Mujer se Levanta” in Spanish), which was published in 2018.

“On my path as an anthropologist, I have found fiction to be a powerful way to build bridges between languages, cultures and nationalities,” Eber said. “My first novel, ‘When a Woman Rises,’ was inspired by my work with Maya women in Chiapas, Mexico.

“The book is the story of a friendship between two Tsotsil Maya women, Lucia and Magdalena,” Eber said. “Lucia is a single woman who heals through prayer and herbs while Magdalena is a weaver, wife and mother.

“After writing the book, I felt that it was something that Mayas could relate to,” Eber said. “Unfortunately, due to poverty and racism, most Mayas haven’t had money to buy books or to go on in school past sixth grade. To challenge in a small way this unfair legacy of colonialism, I wanted to get a Spanish translation into the hands of Mayas for free. In 2020, with the help of over 100 generous GoFundMe donors, 2,000 copies of ‘Cuando una mujer se levanta’ were printed in Chiapas. The pandemic has slowed down distribution, but little by little people are reading it. One response from a group of Maya health promoters was music to my ears: ‘If Lucia can tell the story of her life, why can’t we?’ After that, people who had never put pencil to paper began to write their stories.” 

“After 20 years in the Army and another 20 working for a living, I finally found time to do what I have always wanted to do – write,” said Lisa Archer. “I have done three editions of ‘A Life’s Sampler,’ each a compilation of whatever I felt like writing that year. In conjunction with the students of Bliss Elementary, I published ‘Tony Goes to School,’ about my therapy dog. My latest is ‘A Coloring Book of Dogs, Cats and other Critters,’ an educational bilingual coloring book done at the request of a rescue organization.

 “If I am qualified to give advice to anybody, I would say, ‘Write what inspires you, what you feel you need to do,” Archer said. “If you write to meet others’ goals you won’t enjoy it.”

Myles Culbertson grew up on Park Springs Ranch in northeastern New Mexico and was in the cattle business for many years, ranching in New Mexico and Colorado.

In his varied career, Culberson has engaged in ranching, banking, international trade, border economic and technological development, regulation and law enforcement, border security and management of specialized projects for both industry and government, often on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Culbertson said his experience also includes public service as executive director of two state agencies under four governors and addressing numerous economic, regulatory and resource issues throughout New Mexico as well as the border region.

A Vietnam veteran, Culbertson is the owner of Myles Culbertson Partners LLC, a business strategy firm. 

“My only book came from the need to get a few true stories down on paper before they were lost to time,” Culbertson said. “I had not considered the idea of an actual book until a friend suggested I compile them for people to enjoy. I did, and ‘My Plunder’ is the result. It was a rewarding experience, and I am currently working on an historical novel, which is giving me a whole new admiration and respect for those who author such work.

“The only advice I would have for anyone who thinks he or she would like to write is, (1) what you have is important, so do it, and (2) sit your tail down in the chair and start,” Culbertson said.

For more information, contact Joy Miller at joyemmamiller@gmail.com and Alice Davenport at 575-527-1411 and adavenport@totacc.com, or visit her at Moonbow’s Book Nook, 225 E. Idaho Ave.,  No. 32.

Celebrate Authors, Thomas Branigan Memorial

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