November at the Narrow Gauge
- Jean Alger
- 5 days ago
- 14 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Don’t you imagine the leaves dream now
how comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of the air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees, especially those with
mossy hollows, are beginning to look for
the fires that will come—six, a dozen—to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
stiffens and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its long blue shadows. The wind wags
its many tails. And in the evening
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.
"Song for Autumn" by Mary Oliver
As we move into the final months of the year, I find myself moving within myself, withdrawing, in many ways, from others around me. It's a strange time of year, when I long for community, but also feel the urge to winter. It's a time of year when, sometimes, I withdraw to prepare for the feelings of isolation that come during holiday seasons when you live alone, as I do, and are far away from family of origin, as I am.
It is a time of the year when it is easy to feel alone, yet I only have to step outside of my withdrawal to remember that I have found family around the country, and here in the Valley, too. I step outside of my feeling of isolation and receive greetings and hugs and smiles as I walk down Main Street, as I visit Milagros for coffee, as I pick up a library book, as I walk in Cole Park.
I think, too, about members of my community who are struggling, now, due to the extra expenses of the holiday season, and who are feeling stress in anticipation of losing their access to SNAP benefits, and losing access due to changes made in requirements for receiving food and other assistance. I feel sadness and worry for those who are losing much needed safety nets, but I also feel hope as I see all the ways the community is responding to those needs.
My spirit lifts when I see people acting to support and love each other, when I see kindness extended to strangers, kindness to those outside of their immediate family and friend circles.
We have the opportunity, now, at the change in seasons, at the approaching change in the calendar, to dig our heels into the earth and stand firm in what we value, what we believe. We have the opportunity to make our community a home where all our loved, where all deserve to have their needs met, and where we all work to make that a reality.
Sometimes, the approaching winter feels bleak, but in the cold I feel the warmth of possibility, and the fires of change.
With gratitude for our community, and with a spirit of cultivating home, I thank you for reading.
- Jean A.
Non-Profit of the Month: PALS Children's Program
Each month, the Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative features a local nonprofit that serves the San Luis Valley. This month, you can support PALS Children's Program, which is part of the La Puente network.
From their website: "PALS Children's Program is a referral based, licensed, after-school and summer program for children 5 to 9 years old who are combating trauma or instability in their home lives. Geared to the needs and interests of each child, PALS focuses on social, emotional and behavioral growth through an exploratory learning environment aimed to cultivate their sense of self, family, and community. Through activities and experiences PALS encourages a child's personal growth and self-expression."
When you shop at the NGBC this month, you'll be asked if you want to round up and donate your change. It's a simple and easy way to support local organizations that help make the Valley what it is!
In addition, each year we work with Crystal Gonzalez of Honey-Do Floors to host the Reading Tree. You’ll find the tree decorated with tags that have a child’s initials, age, and interests, and underneath the tree, you’ll find an assortment of books that match the interests. Once you select a book, it will be wrapped by us, and gifted to a child at the PALS holiday party the week of Christmas. We’ll have the tree set up by November 7th, and it will be in store through December 18th, giving us time to get the gifts to PALs. You just purchase the book, and we’ll do the rest!
We're honored to support PALS each year. Please check out their recommended books, and visit their website to learn more about what they do!
The Whole Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel
Parenting From The Inside Out by Daniel J. Siegel
The Connected Child by Karyn B. Purvis
The Connected Parent by Karyn B. Purvis
What Happened To You by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce Perry
November Artist: Bill Tite
Bill Tite has been exploring the San Luis Valley since arriving here from the Detroit area in 2019. He received his MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design, and taught in the ASU Art Department until May 2024.
He works in a variety of mediums, including screen printing, painting, photography, sculpture, and digital- and mixed media, each through multi-sensory immersion. He is especially fascinated with the senses of touch.
Along with visual art, he also writes poetry and prose. His work embodies the intersections of landscape and human-ness (we are the landscape), made possible through long walks and meditation. He loves the San Luis Valley. He loves exploring the world in abstraction, which he believes opens art up to wider individual experience. He loves music and lying in mountain meadows throughout the seasons. He’s very interested to learn how you feel about what he creates.
He is currently working on a series of multi-media canvases. An “Emotional Cartography” performance piece is in the planning stages. It will take place in and around Alamosa next Spring.
You can find copies of some of his books in the Local Author section at the Narrow Gauge, and you’ll be able to see his art throughout the month of November. We hope you’ll come and meet him and talk with him at the reception on November 7th, between 4pm and 6pm!
Native American Heritage Month
November is Native American Heritage Month, as acknowledged by the government of the United States of America. You may remember from last year's newsletter that the U.S. government, with its center in Washington, D.C., is in a treaty relationship with 574 recognized indigenous tribes and nations, and with many more unrecognized tribal groups and nations. Turtle Island (a name that indigenous groups in what is known by some as North America use for the Earth) was inhabited by rich and diverse cultures prior to European exploration, colonization, settlement, and wide-spread land theft and enslavement of peoples from around the world.
With joy, we acknowledge that the globe is still inhabited by many of those rich and diverse cultures. With deep grief we must acknowledge that genocide was sometimes a successful endeavor, and that many cultures and people were lost.
If you'd like to learn more about colonization of North America, I recommend Charles C. Mann's 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus for a comprehensive history. Another favorite scholar of mine is Nick Estes, and his books: Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation; Our History is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance; and Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement.
You will find that many Native American writers are in solidarity with countries currently experiencing genocide, colonization, and land theft, such as Sudan, Congo, and Palestine. Joy Harjo, Chris Le Tray, Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz, to name some, all have expressed solidarity with Palestine for decades. They recognize, in the struggles of other peoples, the genocide enacted on their own, and they know that those acts of genocide are ongoing.
There is much talk, lately, of needing to "go back" to what America used to be, before the current political administration. I, in solidarity with indigenous and colonized people everywhere, encourage you to think about what that really means, and to actively imagine the country you want, and to actively learn and recognize that that country may have existed for you, but it has never existed for everyone within its borders. I encourage you to learn more about the Land Back movement, and to truly understand and imagine what future you want for our country, the people within it, and the people of the world.
We hope you’ll find selections from Indigenous American authors this month and throughout the year so that you can explore the history, the heritage, the present, and possible futures of indigenous communities, and the rest of the world. All of our pasts, presents, and futures entwine. Reading is just the beginning of recognizing that.
We are pleased to welcome Rick Wertz for the release of his book, Coyotes, Gods, and Other Critters. Rick will be in store on November 1st at 6pm for a reading, discussion, and book signing. The book is out in print and available for purchase at the Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative, and online.
About the Author:
Rick Wertz was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico a few decades ago, moving to Colorado when he attended Ft. Lewis College in Durango. After what he calls an “All-American boyhood” he turned into a hippie in the 70s, and he and his wife opened a natural foods store in Gunnison after he finished college. 5 years later, he and his wife and son moved to Alamosa to start a self-sufficient farm. Beginning with a tiny-home they moved onto a foundation, Rick expanded the home gradually over the years. With no electricity in this tiny home, their entertainment came from reading books.
As a child, Rick had a stutter, and had always retreated to the world of books, reading sports stories about Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth, then Agatha Christie and Rex Stout mysteries like his mother, and Ian Fleming like his father. When he was a parent himself, reading aloud in the kerosene-lit farmhouse in the San Luis Valley, he learned to speak without his stutter.
Throughout his life, Rick returned to books, writing stories as a child and getting them published in the paper as an adult. The place of books in his life led, naturally, to writing books himself.
About the Book:
Rick writes, “Where I live, there is a bounty on Coyotes. You can get five bucks for a pair of ears. Coyotes are cunning, conniving, crafty, creative, and cruel. They play games to wile away the time. Coyotes are moon critters. They wax and wane to a symphony of tides. They are shrewd, and wild, and devious. Coyotes answer to no one except moon agitation. Native Americans call Coyotes tricksters. Imported American Aliens call Coyotes sinister. Coyotes are secretive and silent unless agitated by the moon.
"There is always a bounty on Gods. A verifiable (literal?) picture of one would be worth millions. They are cunning, conniving, crafty, creative, and cruel as well. They play games to wile away their timelessness. Gods are sun critters. God’s laws wax and wane to a symphony of cultures. They are wily, wild, and untamed. Gods answer to no one except yin and yang. Native American Indians call everything God. Imported American Aliens call God in his distant sanctuary. Gods are secretive and silent unless provoked by another critter.
"The other critters are along for the ride. Bunny rabbits, pixies, poodles, centaurs, humans and all the others roam the space between Coyotes and Gods. They are earth critters. They worship the sun and the heavens. They fear Coyotes and Gods.
"I am just another critter. I have DNA of both Coyote and God. I have DNA of all the other critters, porcupine, squid, elf, and a myriad of other manifestations of star dust.
"The lives of Coyotes, Gods, and other critters are interwoven. They are the triad that makes existence entertaining and challenging in a life and death sort of way.”
We’re excited to have Rick in store to talk about and read from his book, and we hope to see you there!
Join us on November 5th to discuss We're Safe When We're Alone, a novella, which has been called “A haunting and mesmerizing debut. Part parable, part fairy tale, and part nightmare, it all seems distilled out of the deepest longing. Nghiem Tran is a powerful new voice.” —Dana Spiotta
It was an NPR best book of 2023, a Kansas Notable Book of 2024, and a USA Today bestseller.
Synopsis: Son has lived his entire life inside the mansion. He is a good child. He reads, practices piano, studies, and watches ghosts tend the farmland through a window in the attic. When Father decides it is time for Son to venture outside, Son’s desire to please Father overpowers his fear, and he must contend with questions he never wanted to face. What are the relentlessly grinning ghosts hiding? Has a ghost taken control of Father? What answers or horrors lie in the forest? And who will stop the mysterious encroaching shadows? Nghiem Tran’s debut inverts the haunted house tale, shaping it into a moving exploration of loss, coming of age in a collapsing world, and the battle between isolation and assimilation.
We are pleased to welcome David Primus, author of Beneath Blue Mesa: The Gunnison River Valley Before the Reservoir for a presentation, discussion, and signing on November 8th at 6pm.
About the Author: Dave has lived in Gunnison, Colorado since 1978, graduating from Western College University in 1981. After enjoying a 30-year career in technology, he retired in 2021. His life-long passion has been the history of the American West, specializing in Colorado history. A third generation Coloradoan, he has written the books Beneath Blue Mesa: The Gunnison River Valley Before the Reservoir, Steamboat Springs: Memories of a Colorado Pioneer, and was a member of a small team producing Medicine in the Mountains, a history of the Lake City Medical Center. He has been a long-time member of the Gunnison County Historic Preservation Commission, writes historical articles for the Gunnison Country Times, and has helped develop a historical mapping project with Gunnison County.
About the Book: In the late 1950s, the United States Bureau of Reclamation was authorized to construct the Curecanti Project, consisting of three dams on the Gunnison River. The largest, Blue Mesa Reservoir, was created by the construction of a 390-foot dam at the start of the Black Canyon, inundating 23 miles of the Gunnison River Valley in the 1960s. This is the story of the loss of three towns, sixteen fishing resorts, and fifteen ranches along the scenic Gunnison River west of Gunnison, Colorado.
Local historian David M. Primus has spent over twenty years researching what was once beneath Blue Mesa Reservoir. He has interviewed dozens of people who grew up in the valley and have generously shared their photographs and stories. It is to the many people who were displaced by the reservoir this book is dedicated. The book includes over 200 photographs and many stories of life in the valley before the reservoir. It can be used as a tour, allowing the reader to stop at various points and imagine what was there before.
We are excited to have David in store, and look forward to seeing you there!
Spadefoot Story Slam: November 15th, 6pm
Each month, we host the Spadefoot Story Slam community, sharing stories based on a theme, selected at the previous month’s Slam. While inspired by the Moth Story Hour, our monthly meetings are not a contest, but instead are a way to come together and practice sharing, and deep listening.
Join us on November 15th for the FINAL story slam of the year! We'll resume gathering in January of 2026!
This November join us for stories on TRADITION. Prepare a story about customs and practices. Birthrights and rituals. Friday night football or family face time each Sunday. Chinese food on Christmas Day or a New Year's leap into the ocean. Bar mitzvahs, quinceañeras, first piercings, or tattoos. Planting a tree for the birth of a child. Creating your own or following the ones that came before. Tell us about a time you broke with the past, a time you created a new tradition, a time doing things the old way didn't work. We encourage, always creative interpretation of the theme.
Stories should be true as remembered by you, and spoken from the heart, instead of read from the page. We don’t have an official time limit, but encourage stories that take 10 minutes or less, especially if we have a large group. We look forward to seeing you on November 15th at 6pm!
Call for Artists for 2026
We are all full up for artists for 2025, and are now seeking to fill our 2026 calendar!
Our most common features are painting and photography, though we have also had fiber arts, glass art, and ceramics.
Featured artists have a show for one month. We'll promote your art on our social media accounts, feature you in our monthly newsletter, send a press-release to the newspaper, and schedule an artist reception if you want to have one.
We try to feature new artists each year; if you were featured in 2025, please wait to apply again until we put out a call for 2027.
If you would like to be a featured, please fill out the application by clicking here. You'll be asked to upload photo samples of your work, to provide a bio and artist statement, and to provide months when you are not available. If you have questions about any part of the application, please email us at narrowgauge.coop@gmail.com.
Other News
Indie Press Book Club Feature
The Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative is happy to feature Melville House Books for November and December!
On January 7th at 6pm we'll discuss We Live Here Now by C.D. Rose.
From their website: “Melville House is an independent publisher founded in 2001 in order to publish Poetry After 9/11. The book, an anthology of poems written by New York poets, was inspired by poems sent to the book blog, MobyLives, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
The book was widely successful, and Melville House soon expanded its list to include books of literary fiction, political and activist nonfiction, cookbooks and books on food, and a classics line called The Art of the Novella. The company has published two Nobel Prize winners — Imre Kertész and Heinrich Böll — and numerous New York Times bestsellers. It particularly prides itself on the diversity of its list, and on the publication of debut authors.
Melville House UK was founded in 2011.”
Be sure to explore the various collections they have and browse our selection of their books over the next two months. We had a really difficult time choosing only a few!
Our book club pick: We Live Here Now by C.D. Rose.
Join us on January 7th at 6pm to discuss this novel, described as “DeLillo meets Kafka in a wickedly smart novel that explores the boundaries between art and life, vision and reality, beauty and commerce.”
Synopsis: When visitors to a famous conceptual artist's installation start mysteriously disappearing, the aftershocks radiate outwards through twelve people who were involved in the project, changing all of their lives, and launching them on a crazy-quilt trajectory that will end with them all together at one final, apocalyptic bacchanal.
Mixing illusion and reality, simulacra and replicants, sound artists and death artists, performers and filmmakers and theorists and journalists, We Live Here Now ranges across the world of weapons dealers and international shipping to the galleries and studios on the cutting edge of hyper-contemporary art. It spins a dazzling web that conveys, with eerie precision, the sheer strangeness of what it is like to be alive today.
The book is available in store now, and is 10% through January 7th!
Many Ways to Shop the NGBC
Shop In Store
You can shop with us in store and browse the shelves. Find the book you're looking for, or find a book you didn't know you were looking for! Our booksellers are happy to help you find the title, make recommendations, or order a book if we don't have it in stock.
Shop Online
We have an indie commerce website, through IndieLite, that allows customers to place orders online. Just go to narrowgaugebooks.com and click on the "Shop Online" button. Then, click "order a book" and you'll be redirected to our indie commerce site. You can search for the book you want, and then place your order from wherever you are! There are options to have your book shipped to you, or to pick up your book in store! You can even have your book shipped to someone else, if you're looking to skip the hassle of shipping the book yourself.
Call Us!
You can call us at 719-589-3464 to see if we have a book on the shelf. We'll be happy to put it aside for you! We can hold books for up to one week, so you can be sure that title is ready and waiting next time to stop in!
Preorders
You can preorder your next greatly anticipated book! Preorders help us know what our customers are excited about, and help us more effectively judge how many copies we should order. Often, we get new releases ahead of their publishing date, so when publishing Tuesday rolls around, we'll have your shiny new book ready and waiting for you to dive into the pages!
Be sure to check out this week's Shelf Awareness newsletter. Don't miss releases by your favorite authors, what's going on with your preferred genre, or find an obscure gem. NGBC can order any title referenced, and we can ship it direct to your house.
Happy Book Hunting!
Thank you for reading, thank you for supporting us, and thank you for being our community! - Jean A.
Comments