Natachee Momaday Gray Coming to Otero Arts in April, N. Scott Momaday is Remembered in Santa Fe in May

Otero Artspace, Alamogordo, New Mexico, at 12th and Indiana on Friday, April 18, 6:00 PM will be hosting their quarterly reading series featuring New Mexico poet, performer, and musician Natachee Momaday Gray. Refreshments and book signing will follow.

Natachee Momaday Gray is a Santa Fe native and narradora indígena. Her work focuses on the melding of art and myth, ancestry and nostalgia, food and prayer, glamour, frivolity and the passage of time. She comes from a long lineage of storytellers and honors this tradition by bringing a charm and seduction to stories overlooked and undertold. Moving between English, Spanish, and the blood memory of the Plains people, she addresses her boundless identity, often using the alias Tatja Lucia.

She comes from lineage of literary excellence as her grandfather is going to be celebrated at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival.

For literary lovers the Santa Fe International Literary Festival will take place May 16–18, 2025, bringing together world-renowned authors, thinkers, and passionate readers to celebrate the power of story in a city known throughout the world for its beauty, history, and artistic inspiration.

The enduring literary legacy of N. Scott Momaday (1934–2024) will be honored by fellow authors, friends, and family at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival at 11 am on May 17, 2025.

The Man Made of Words: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of N. Scott Momaday will feature multi-award-winning authors and others who will share personal memories, cherished writings, and other insights on the global impact of Momaday’s singular voice and vision.

Participants include beloved environmental author Terry Tempest Williams, who shared a decades-long friendship with Momaday; acclaimed Irish author Colum McCann, who will speak to Momaday’s international influence; poet Jennifer Foerster (Mvskoke), who teaches Momaday’s work at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA); and Oscar-nominated filmmaker and writer Julian Brave NoiseCat(Salish), one of countless creatives influenced by the Native American Renaissance launched by Momaday (Kiowa) in 1969, when he became the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize for his transcendent novel House Made of Dawn.

Additionally, Momaday’s granddaughter, Natachee Momaday Gray (Kiowa), will share poetry, while the 2017 film, Return to Rainy Mountain, created by Momaday’s daughter, Jill Momaday (Kiowa), will be screened during the Festival weekend.

Momaday was an internationally acclaimed poet, author, artist, and scholar when he passed away at 89 at his home in Santa Fe in 2024. He was also a close friend of the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, appearing as a featured author in 2022 and as the Festival’s Honorary Chair in 2023.

In a Washington Post tribute following his death, Joy Harjo(Mvskoke), 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, noted his power as a storyteller in House Made of Dawn: "Momaday found a way to move eloquently between oral storytelling forms and the written English novel form. The trajectory of the book moves from sunrise to sunrise, making a circle–a story structure recognizable in Indigenous oral history, yet following traditional American literary shape and expectations of a novel.”

The three-day festival features big-stage presentations, intimate talks, and curated excursions. In all, more than thirty Festival events will take place over the weekend at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, in Santa Fe’s historic downtown.

Rich in cultural diversity and creativity, including a literary tradition that stretches back centuries, the beautiful, maverick city of Santa Fe is a perfect host for the Festival. At this time of extraordinary upheaval, authors and readers from around the world and close to home come together for three remarkable days to explore a range of issues—in politics, justice, race, the environment, and much more.

What promises to be an extraordinary tribute to N. Scott Momaday at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival tickets are available. For a complete list of the 2025 festival authors, please visit website.

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