Bob Shacochis has been praised as a "stunning" writer who "summons the spirits of America and the Third World" (New York, Newsday). Five authors who studied at Bennington College while Shacochis was a part of the core MFA faculty have joined forces with Garcia Street Books to coax Shacochis from his NM mountain home for a rare Santa Fe reading. Celebrated for his artistry in short story, novel, nonfiction, and essay this big-hearted and feisty American icon will read from the 2010 reissue, with new afterward, of The Immaculate Invasion.

Bob Shacochis, The Immaculate Invasion, (reissue with new afterward) Grove/Atlantic, Inc., .June, 2010

His first collection of stories, Easy in the Islands, won the National Book Award for First Fiction in 1985, and his second collection, The Next New World, was awarded the Prix de Rome from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1989. Bob Shacochis is a former columnist for Gentleman's Quarterly and a contributing editor for both Outside and Harper's. A collection of his columns for GQ, Domesticity: A Gastronomic Interpretation of Love, was published by Scribner in 1994. Swimming in the Volcano, was a 1993 National Book Award Finalist. The Immaculate Invasion, a chronicle of the 1994 military intervention in Haiti, was a finalist for The New Yorker Magazine Award for best nonfiction of 1999. He has received a James Michener Fellowship and a NEA grant.

Kurt Casswell, In the Sun's House, Trinity University Press, 2009

In the year teaching at Borrego Pass, a remote Navajo community in northwest New Mexico, Caswell found his calling as a teacher and developed a love for the rich landscape of New Mexico.

John R Coats, Original Sinners: A New Interpretation of Genesis, Free Press, 2009

Coats work has also appeared in Best American Spiritual Writing 2008

Debra Gwartney, Live Through This: A Mothers Memoir of Runaway Daughters, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009

The story of Gwartney's runaway daughters first came to the attention of the public on a broadcast of This American Life. Her work and story have since been recognized by the National Book Critics Circle and featured in People Magazine, The Tyra Banks Show, and NPR.

Amy Lou Jenkins, Every Natural Fact: Five Seasons of Open-Air Parenting, Holy Cow! Press, June, 2010

In ten wilderness walks, mother and son explore natural history and the mystique of being human Jenkins' stories have been anthologized in a dozen collections and honored by the E/H Outdoor Writing Award, X.J. Kennedy Award, and others. She was awarded a Mesa Refuge fellowship for environmental writing.

Laurel Saville, Postmortem, iUniverse, 2009

Annie Ford dated Marlon Brando, designed a fashion line, and partied with the LA hip before mental illness placed her in the path of a murderer. Saville examines the life and death of her mother in a reverse detective story and search for reconciliation.

Garcia Street Books, author event held at the Inn at Loretto

August 5, 12-1:30

Open to the public. Make reservations through Garcia Street Books: Santa Fe, New Mexico--505.986.0151

Alternately you may call and order signed books from any and all of these writers. Please order by July 25th, 2010.

Questions and Answers

How did this event originate?

When Bob Shacochis lectured at Bennington College in Vermont last summer, many of his former students were in attendance for reunion events. As Bob is known to do, he rekindled friendships with former students. When he and his wife invited Amy Lou Jenkins and her family to visit his New Mexico home during the summer of 2010, Jenkins cooked up an idea.

Her publisher had encouraged her to set up public readings in any towns she visited. When she considered a Santa Fe reading, it occurred to her that she knew four other writers who had studied nonfiction with Bob who had recently published terrific books. She wondered if they might like to come and read as a tribute to Shacochis. After checking with Barbara Peterson, Shacochis' wife, Jenkins moved ahead following Petersons' suggestion. "Let's not tell him until after it's all set up."

Shacochis' historically important Immaculate Invasion would also be released in summer 2010 with a new afterward that put the US/ Haitian relationships in context after the horrific earthquake.

Each writer Jenkins contacted was quick to say, "I want to be there," a testament to Shacochis' influence as a professor and mentor. Ed Borins of Garcia Street books was excited about the prospect of such a notable event and set up the reading/luncheon.

Questions for Amy Lou Jenkins

Do you feel privileged to have such a special relationship with your writing mentor?

"Privileged," yes. "Special," no. Bob and his wife are very inclusive by nature. He invites many of his friends and students to his home and to participate in his exploits. Last November my son and I and another Bennington MFA grad, Jenn Dean, met up with he and Barbara in Mozambique to spend a week at Gorongosa National Park. Bob was doing research for a project, but found time to safari and party with us. My teenage son and Bob did cannon balls into a waterfall pool on Mount Gorongosa. Once on a safari and radio crew found Bob at the edge of an acacia forest and interviewed Bob on the spot.

How Shacochis help you and the other writers to publish in this tough literary market?

Bob didn't worry about publishing; he demanded writing with literary merit. He engaged in the work. He recognized and praised the successful elements of our work and swore and ranted when we fell short. I don't know specifically what he did for my classmates, but for me, he engaged with my manuscripts: word by word, step by step. When you know someone is working that hard to pull out your best, you want to climb mountains. He told me I was a nature writer—or rather that my writing was best when exploring the natural world. And he guided me to conceptualize Every Natural Fact, saying that voice of Mom and son in nature piqued him as a reader. I labored like a worker ant for Bob and immediately started to publish my nature writing. When it comes to literary giants with generous souls, Bob's the real deal.

Do you credit Shacochis' mentorship as essential to your literary success?

Emotionally, I want to answer "yes," but the Bennington experience includes so many stunning and generous faculty members, that Bob would question my veracity if I failed to credit the system of engagement with literature established by Liam Rector and his original core faculty, which included Shacochis.  Each of my Bennington professors, including Susan Cheever, Phillip Lopate, and Tom Bissell offered me experiences that expanded my understanding and skills as a reader and a writer. They all appear in my book dedication and many other names could have been included, because the most difficult aspect of sitting in a Bennington lecture hall is trying to concentrate while star-struck.

What will happen at the Garcia Street Books/Inn at Loretto event?

I always wonder what will happen at any event that includes Bob Shacochis. He's a genuine character with no interest in being politically correct and, although it seems counterintuitive, with a Homeric capacity to care about others. In the literary world he's analogous to a rock star, so who knows who else will show up. Each of five writers / Bennington MFA grads will say a very few words and read just a page or so from our new books. We don't want to make everyone wait very long for the words and readings from the featured celebrity–Bob Shacochis.