Arts & Culture’s One Albuquerque, One Hundred Poets Wins Top NM-AZ Book Award
The New Mexico Book Co-Op recently announced its best of the best New Mexico-Arizona books of 2023 and the City of Albuquerque Department of Arts & Culture’s One Albuquerque, One Hundred Poets won in the Poetry Anthology category. Edited by Mary Oishi, former Albuquerque Poet Laureate, the anthology is dedicated to the Albuquerque poets who participated in the Poets in the Libraries project and the librarians who stand at the vanguard of free speech.
“The Poets in the Libraries project was sown by Albuquerque Poet Laureate, Mary Oishi, who served during 2020-2022 and thus will always be affectionately known as our ‘pandemic poet laureate’,” Dr. Shelle Sanchez, director Arts & Culture, explains in the book’s forward. “Tasked with a community project at a time when we were all keeping a distance, Mary brought together hundreds of local poets to read work from home or at their neighborhood library to be delivered virtually during COVID-19.”
"This award is a great honor for the scores of Albuquerque poets who participated in the Poets in the Libraries project, as well as for the City's Arts & Culture Department, Albuquerque's amazing public library system, and the Albuquerque Poet Laureate Program. My deep appreciation to everyone involved in this project. Today I am floating," Oishi said.
The publication was made possible through a collaboration with the Albuquerque Public Library Foundation, with proceeds from the book being donated to the foundation. One Albuquerque, One Hundred Poets can be purchased at local bookstores and on Amazon, as well as checked out from the Public Library.
Arts & Culture’s City at the Crossroads: The Pandemic, Protests, and Public Service in Albuquerque written by Joline Gutierrez Krueger was a finalist in the NM-AZ Book Awards History category. City at the Crossroads helps preserve the history of pandemic year one in Albuquerque, as journalist Gutierrez Krueger reported on how the city's government and citizens came together to weather change.
A finalist in the History category was the Albuquerque Museum’s Journey West: Danny Lyon, a catalog to accompany the museum’s exhibition of the same name featuring the photographer's lifelong exploration of the people, places, land, and history of the West. The catalog was a collective effort by Danny Lyon and the museum’s collections and curatorial staff, with support from the Albuquerque Museum Foundation and Albuquerque Museum Board of Trustees.
As the state’s largest not-for-profit volunteer organization serving authors and publishing professionals, the New Mexico Book Co-op numbers over 1,200 participants. Since 2004, they have vigorously executed the mission to showcase local books, authors, presses, and related professionals; to promote literacy; and to raise public awareness of quality books produced here.