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2025 ARSL Book Mark-It: Author Fest

Celebrate the vibrant talent of authors from Albuquerque and beyond at our afternoon Book Mark-It! Meet your next favorite authors, hear readings, and purchase copies of books to get signed.

ARSL Author Fest will run 4:30-6:00pm on Friday, September 19.

Author Fest Schedule 

4:30–6:00 PM | Signings & Book Sales

4:45–5:15 PM | Panels I

Main Character Energy: Identity in Young Adult & Middle Grade Novels | Alexandra Diaz | Khadijah VanBrakle
Wild Words: Reconnecting to Nature | D. J. Green | Dr. Wendy Johnson | Laura Paskus

4:45–4:55 PM | Storytime I: Jenny Lacika

5:00–5:10 PM | Storytime II: Laurel Goodluck

5:15–5:25 PM | Storytime III: Rachel Bate

5:30–6:00 PM | Panels II

The Places that Shape Us: Stories of Home & Belonging | Jamie Figueroa | Jennifer Ghivan | Daniela Ramirez
Drafting Duets: Collaborative Writing Relationships | Mark Beauregard | Andrew Bourelle | Melinda M. Snodgrass 

5:30–5:40 PM | Storytime IV: Cynthia Grady

5:45–5:55 PM | Storytime V: Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

This schedule is subject to change. 

Participating Authors

Rachel Bate has lived in New Mexico since 1993, where she has been captivated by the natural beauty and the critters that appear in her stories.  She is a retired elementary and special education teacher after a stellar thirty-seven-year teaching experience.  Rachel writes stories in the hopes of encouraging children to follow their dreams, be mindful of others, and to take care of our beautiful planet with all its amazing critters.  She collaborated with her sister (and the illustrator!) Rebecca Jacob with each of her books to create engaging, colorful pictures that coincide beautifully with the stories.

Mark Beauregard is the author of six novels, including The Whale: A Love Story, which was a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the M.M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction. His nonfiction book The Open-Focus Life is an attention-training guide based on the research of Princeton neuroscientist Les Fehmi. Mark’s shorter work has appeared in Literary Hub, Chile Pepper, La Piccioletta Barca, Kestrel: A Journal of Literature and Art, and CC Motorcycle NewsMagazine.

Andrew Bourelle is the author of SHOT CLOCK, 48 HOURS TO KILL, and HEAVY METAL, as well as coauthor with James Patterson of the New York Times best-sellers TEXAS RANGER, TEXAS OUTLAW, and THE TEXAS MURDERS. He is a professor and the Director of Creative Writing at the University of New Mexico.

Alexandra Diaz is the bilingual author of several award-winning books for children and teens, including THE ONLY ROAD (Pura Belpré Honor and Américas Award), THE CROSSROADS (New Mexico’s Great Read at the National Book Festival), and SANTIAGO'S ROAD HOME (ALA Notable Children’s Books). Her latest book, FAREWELL CUBA, MI ISLA, has received two starred reviews. She is a native Spanish speaker and the above titles are all available in Spanish as well.

Jamie Figueroa is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer and the memoir in essays Mother Island: A Daughter Claims Puerto Rico. Her writing has appeared in American Short Fiction, The New York Times, Emergence Magazine, Boston Review, Elle, McSweeney’s and Kweli Journal, among others. She teaches in the Creative Writing MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Figueroa is Boricua (Afro-Taíno) by way of Ohio and is a longtime resident of northern New Mexico. 

Jennifer Givhan is a Mexican-American and Indigenous poet and novelist from the Southwestern desert and the recipient of poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and PEN/Rosenthal Emerging Voices. Her novel Salt Bones is coming this July 22, 2025 from Mulholland/Little, Brown. She holds a Master’s degree from California State University Fullerton and a Master’s in Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College. Her latest novel, River Woman, River Demon (Blackstone Publishing), was chosen for Amazon’s Book Club and as a National Together We Read Library Pick and was featured on CBS Mornings. It also won an International Latino Book Award in the Rudolfo Anaya Latino-Focused Fiction category. Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, POETRY, TriQuarterly, The Boston Review, The Rumpus, Salon, Ploughshares, and many others. She’s received the Southwest Book Award, New Ohio Review’s Poetry Prize, Phoebe Journal’s Greg Grummer Poetry Prize, the Pinch Journal Poetry Prize, and Cutthroat’s Joy Harjo Poetry Prize. Givhan has taught at the University of Washington Bothell’s MFA program as well as Western New Mexico University and has guest lectured at universities across the country. She was the 2024 Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at The University of New Mexico. She would love to hear from you at jennifergivhan.com and you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for inspiration, prompts, and real talk about the publishing world and life as a mama writer.

Award-winning author Laurel Goodluck, a Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation Citizen, and Tsimshian Alaskan Native, resides in Albuquerque, NM, with her Diné husband. Belonging to an intertribal family is at the heart of her stories, encouraging children to realize their cultural experiences are unique and powerful perspectives to rely on, explore, and celebrate. Laurel’s 2025 books include Fierce Aunties! (Simon & Schuster) & Yáadilá! Good Grief! (Harper Collins). Forever Cousins (Charlesbridge, 2022) was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and NTCE Honor Book, and was named the 2024 American Indian Youth Literature Award winner for best picture book, and was hailed by Dr. Debbie Reese’s blog as “one of the best books I’ve read.” More award-winning books include Too Much, My Great Big Native Family (Simon & Schuster, 2024), Rock Your Mocs (Harper Collins, 2023), She Persisted: Deb Haaland (PRH, 2023), which was just selected to represent NM at the National Book Festival. Instagram @lauriegoodluck & visit her at www.laurelgoodluck.com.

Cynthia Grady’s three published picture books each earned starred reviews and made multiple year-end lists for their educational and historical significance. She studied children’s literature at Simmons College and was a teaching fellow with Harvard’s Graduate Ed Project Zero program from 2009-2014. A former librarian, she writes across genres and age groups in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. In addition to her writing life, she volunteers in a wild animal rescue clinic and is a licensed hummingbird rehabilitator. 

D. J. Green is a writer, geologist, and sailor. As an environmental and engineering geologist for more than 30 years, she consulted on projects throughout the U.S. before turning her attention to writing, where she weaves science into story. She lives near the Sandia Mountains in Placitas, New Mexico, and cruises the Salish Sea on her sailboat during the summers. No More Empty Spaces, her first novel, won the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Award for General Fiction and the 2024 International Book Award for Best New Fiction.

Dr. Wendy Johnson is an activist, clincian, and author whose career includes stints scaling up HIV treatment in Mozambique, overseeing an urban public health department in Cleveland, and directing a community clinic in Santa Fe. She currently practices family and addiction medicine in rural Northern New Mexico, and teaches students and residents at from the University of New Mexico and the University of Washington. Dr. Johnson grew up along the shores of Lake Erie in Buffalo, Cleveland, and Toledo and currently resides outside of Santa Fe in a community that includes two dogs, many human neighbors, a few bears, and countless coyotes and cottonwoods. 

Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw is the author and illustrator of Like You, Like Me (Jan 16, 2024, a modern companion to Same, Same but Different); Papa Brings Me the World; Luna & Me: The True Story of a Girl Who Lived in a Tree to Save a Forest; My Travelin’ Eye; and Same, Same but Different, for which she won the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award and the South Asia Book Award. A graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute and The Illustration Academy, Jenny lives with her family on their homestead in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. Her books are woven with themes of curiosity and connection, and are inspired by her travels, life experiences, and love of nature. She homeschools with her son, raises Nigerian Dwarf goats, and writes and paints in a little studio her family made with their own hands – and lots of mud.

Jenny Lacika is a children’s writer from Santa Fe, NM. As a chronically ill, autistic, Chicana, MIT grad, her work often explores themes relating to disability and accessibility, Mexican American culture and history, and STEM education. Jenny is the author of the Mathical Book Prize-winning Again, Essie?, illustrated by Teresa Martínez, that Kirkus called, “A fun look at spatial and sibling relationships” as well as other stories that explore early childhood math concepts, like mapping and logic. These stories are part of the Storytelling Math series with Charlesbridge Publishing and are also available in Spanish-English bilingual editions. Jenny also has several forthcoming nonfiction titles including Talking Books: Audiobook Inventor Dr. Robert B. Irwin and a New Way to Read, illustrated by Ashanti Fortson with Atheneum Books for Young Readers. You can learn more about Jenny’s books at her website, www.jennylacika.com, or connect with her on Instagram @jennylacika.

Laura Paskus is a longtime environment reporter based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She's the author of “At the Precipice: New Mexico’s Changing Climate" (University of New Mexico Press, 2020) and editor of "Water Bodies: Love Letters to the Most Abundant Substance on Earth" (Torrey House Press, 2024). She began her career at High Country News in 2002 and has worked for print, online, radio, and television outlets. Most recently, she was senior producer of “Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present and Future” for eight seasons on New Mexico PBS.

Melinda M. Snodgrass studied opera at the Conservatory of Vienna, graduated Magna cum Laude from U.N.M. with a degree in history, and went on to Law School. After 3 years as a lawyer, she realized she hated being a lawyer and turned to writing. In 1988 she accepted a job on Star Trek: The Next Generation and began her Hollywood career where she has worked on staff on numerous shows and has written television pilots and feature films. In the prose world she writes for and co-edits the shared world anthology series Wild Cards with George R. R. Martin. In addition, she writes her own novels. She is working on a new fantasy novel, and her space opera, Imperials, her Carolingian series are available. For fun she rides her dressage horses and plays role playing and video games.

Daniela Ramirez writes picture books and middle grade novels with a passion for storytelling. Daniela is Mexican American and excited to share her culture. She loves writing latinx characters and wishes to inspire her own children. Her debut picture book, Welcome Home, Esmerelda, released in May 2025 from Charlesbridge publishing. It’s also available in Spanish, Bienvenida a Casa, Esmerelda. Kirkus Review called Welcome Home, Esmerelda, “A warm and relatable tale told with heart.” When she’s not writing you can find her chasing her little ones, dancing in the kitchen and exploring the mountains. Daniela is married to her college sweetheart and is a military spouse. She lives in New Mexico. Daniela Ramirez is represented by Charlotte Wenger of Prospect Agency. 

Khadijah VanBrakle is a Muslim woman of color, born and raised in Canada to American parents. She was a 2021-2023 Highlights Foundation Muslim Storytellers Fellow. Her debut Young Adult novel, Fatima Tate Takes The Cake, was a 2024 NAACP Image Award finalist for Outstanding Youth/Teen literature and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Khadijah writes coming-of-age stories about Black American Muslim teens with universal themes so those who share her dual marginalization will finally see themselves on the printed page. Her sophomore YA novel, My Perfect Family, released in August 2025. It's received starred trade reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus. Both of her books are set in New Mexico. For more information, check out her website: khadijahvanbrakle.com or her Instagram @khadijahvanbrakle.