In-Store Event with Tim Amsden

In-Store Event with Tim Amsden

Come join us for an exciting in-person event with the one and only Tim Amsden as he presents at Watermark Books & Café!

Much of New Mexico carries a strong sense of place, and that's especially true in the Ramah area where the rich cultural tapestry, the geology and natural history, and the sky and brilliant night stars all give the land a deep and abiding energy. Many traditional Native American belief systems recognize the spiritual life of all things; in the land of the Puebloans and the Navajo, it's easy to believe.

In 1998 Tim and Lucia Amsden left their familiar lives in Kansas City and moved to the Ramah Valley in northwestern New Mexico. Love Letter to Ramah recounts their two decades of experiences there, nestled among an eclectic and diverse community of loving, earth-rooted people. It is also an evocation of the rich human and natural history permeating the area and the importancecentral to the traditional beliefs of Indigenous peopleof living in concert with the living earth.

Living in that place and within that community gave Tim and Lucia a profound and visceral understanding of our need to move the fragile blue marble of our earth back into balance. Just as important, it enhanced their awareness that we must shift ourselves into acknowledgment of and respect for our global community. It also gave them a firm belief that those things are indeed possible.

Reviews:

“A book of gentle wisdom and quiet inspiration. . . . If you want to understand both the land and the culture of northern New Mexico, you couldn’t find a better source.”—Glenn Aparicio Parry, author of Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again

“Tim Amsden reveals a deep sense of the land and lore of that patch of paradise presently known as New Mexico, and he presents the reader with a wide range of insights into the nature of the ecology, cultural diversity, deep history, and exquisite beauty of the Southwest.”—Jack Loeffler, author of A Pagan Polemic: Reflections on Nature, Consciousness, and Anarchism

“Amsden’s stories illustrate how his time in the Ramah area cultivated his deep sense of place and rekindled his belief in the sustaining power of a diverse human community. I highly recommend it as an introduction to this beautiful portion of the American Southwest and a heartwarming read for those of us still open to awe and connection.”—Carla R. Van West, former director of research, SRI Foundation

About the author:

Tim Amsden’s work has appeared in Pudding Magazine, Poetry Ireland Review, Potpourri, Sin Fronteras, Out of Line, Rockhurst Review, New Mexico Magazine, Arabesques Review, Contemporary Verse 2, Istanbul Literature Review, The Newer York, Rattle, a Pima Press poetry anthology titled Lasting: Poems on Aging, and elsewhere.

His first full-length book of poetry, Vanishing Point, was published in 2012, and he edited and contributed to The Bear is My Father: Wisdom of a Muskogee Creek Caretaker of Sacred Ways which was published by Synergetic Press in 2022 and has since been published in Italian. His book Love Letter to Ramah: Living Beside New Mexico’s Trail of the Ancients was published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2024.

He earned a J.D. from the University of Iowa, worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 24 years, and lives now in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Watermark Books & Café, 4701 East Douglas Avenue, Wichita, United States