Poet Simon Ortiz headlines Southwest writer festival

SILVER CITY, N.M. (AP) – Native American poet Simon Ortiz and Dallas Morning News Mexico City bureau chief Alfredo Corchado are set to headline a gathering of Southwest writers in New Mexico.

The three-day “Southwest Festival of the Written Word” begins Friday at a number of venues in Silver City. The event brings readers and writers together every two years.

First held in 2013, the festival invited writers from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Ortiz, who is an Acoma Pueblo, is the author of 1992’s “Woven Stone” – a book that blends poetry and prose.

Corchado is the author of “Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter’s Journey Through a Country’s Descent into Darkness.”