The Placitas Community Library will feature an afternoon of poetry with three New Mexico poets on Oct. 6.
Poets Hilda Raz, Katherine Seluja and Sarah Kotchian will share their work at the library starting at 2 p.m.
In recognition of National Mental Illness Awareness Week, some of the poems will honor the role of poetry as a witness to mental health challenges.
According to a press release, Raz, a Placitas resident, is currently the series editor for poetry at the University of New Mexico Press and poetry editor for Bosque Press. Raz has published 14 books as a poet, nonfiction writer and editor, including Letter from a Place I’ve Never Been and List & Story.
Seluja is a poet and a micro fiction writer. Her most recent poetry collection, Point of Entry focuses on issues of immigration and ancestry. Her previous book, Gather the Night, is dedicated to her older brother who lived with schizophrenia and substance use disorder. She is a poetry editor at Unbroken Journal and lives in Santa Fe.
Kotchian is an Albuquerque writer who says her creative work arises from the solitude and beauty of walks in the New Mexico mountains. Her most recent book of poetry, Light of Wings, reflects the beauty of the world and the grief of losses that are both personal and universal. Camino, a book of poetry and photographs about her 500-mile solo pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, received the New Mexico–Arizona Book Award and the Seven Sisters Book Award.
Mental Health Awareness Week is recognized annually during the first week in October. Begun by an Act of Congress in the U.S. in 1990, the week is dedicated to increasing awareness and education regarding mental health and its challenges. It is part of the larger monthlong awareness campaign for depression and mental health screening. Oct. 10 is World Mental Health Day in over 150 countries and is intended to stop the stigma against mental illness.