Martha Egan reads from and signs La Ranfla.
Nothing ever seems to change in New Mexico’s timeless landscape of high desert plains, adobe villages, and farmsteads nestled in the folds of piñon green mountains—even in centuries-old cities sprawling into modern shopping mall culture.
Newly arrived hippies buy a used truck from a neighbor and learn to play by New Mexico’s rules. An old woman’s memories of a midwife in the 1920s teach her granddaughter about genetics. When a vet rescues a battered stray dog, it changes her life forever. A grudge lasting generations ends with a standoff at a tiny cemetery. An unruly mutt helps a young silversmith stand her ground. A broken down MGB strands a college boy in a border town, where local life proves to be unexpectedly seductive. On a trip to a ceremonial in Navajo Counry, a woman is inspired to open a new business, and her heart.
Award-winning author Martha Egan’s stories of the ways of an ancient place transcend the limits of regionalism.
“I always intended to get serious about writing fiction at some point,” says Martha Egan. “But it took a hideous experience with U.S. Customs to force me into it.” The result was a semi-autobiographical novel, Clearing Customs.
She has been an importer and dealer of Latin American folk art since 1974 through her gallery, Pachamama, in Santa Fe. The Museum of New Mexico Press published her non-fiction books, Milagros: Votive Offerings from the Americas and Relicarios: Devotional Miniatures from the Americas.
Egan volunteers with the Corrales Residents for Clean Air and Water, the International Folk Art Market, and hangs out with 43 nieces and nephews. She grew up in northeastern Wisconsin and is a rabid Packer fan.
