Michele PotterWRITER & PHOTOGRAPHER · TAOS, NEW MEXICO
It was called the Lloyd Street News. I was the reporter, the editor, and the entire circulation department, and I have been doing a version of the same thing ever since.
These days it's a letter that goes out once a month from a mountain in northern New Mexico, and a book built from five generations of my family's letters. What I'm after hasn't changed much. Somebody hands you something — a place, a name, a set of assumptions — and you spend a life deciding what to do with it. That turns out to be everyone's subject, not just mine.
Michele PotterAuthor of Keep a Light On
SPRING 2027
How to live with what history hands you and pass something better forward.
A box of letters going back a hundred and forty years — from a sod house on the Dakota prairie to a granddaughter's inbox. Five generations of one family, each working out what to do with what they were handed.
The question underneath is the one everybody gets to eventually. What do you do with an inheritance you didn't choose, and what do you pass on.
Read about the bookSign up there to hear when it's ready.
Thirty years of showing up for the same job on the same mountain, and the moment it quietly became a life.
A photograph that lived on the fridge for twenty years, and what it finally turned out to be about.
A shoe shop, a grandfather who got out of Berlin in time, and the question that always leads somewhere.
Buffalo at the foot of the new machine age, and a sod house on the Dakota prairie in the winter of 1888.
One letter a month, free. Hundreds of readers already get it.
Author, educator and story coach in Taos, New Mexico — three decades of travel, environmental and cultural storytelling in print and image. Teaches skiing at Taos Ski Valley and writing and American studies at UNM Taos.
Writing, editing and story coaching: working with people to find the patterns and hidden treasures in their own narrative.
Editorial and commercial work for Hewlett-Packard, Taos Ski Valley, Nordic Realty, Amigos Bravos, the Millicent Rogers Museum and the Red River Watershed Group.
Of Spiders and Sheep: A Diné Weaver
Trend 2026
From Cloudberries to Chanterelles
Journal of Culinary Tourism 2022
Ursa Major
La Puerta, Kendall Hunt 1999
Dakota: A Spiritual Geography Revisited
Univ. of North Texas Press 1995
Regular contributor to High Country, Snow Country, Enchantment and The Taos News.
PhD, American Studies
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO · 2007
MA, Creative Writing
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY · 1994
First woman worldwide to complete the 10-country World Loppet ski circuit; lifelong ultramarathoner.
Work appears in Private Voices, Public Lives, Storied Wheels, Drinking from the Stream and Unplugged Voices.
AUTHOR · EDUCATOR · COACH
Author, educator and story coach — three decades of travel, environmental, and cultural storytelling in print and image. Currently completing Keep a Light On, a book built from five generations of one family's letters.
French, German & Spanish (conversational); some Italian & Norwegian.
PhD, American Studies
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO · 2007
MA, Creative Writing
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY · 1994
First woman worldwide to complete the 10-country World Loppet ski circuit; lifelong ultramarathoner.
Freelance · Taos, New Mexico
Editorial, marketing, and web content for arts and cultural clients; writing, editing, and photography for organizations including Hewlett-Packard, Taos Ski Valley, and Nordic Realty.
University of New Mexico · Taos & Albuquerque
Taught bioregional perspectives and water and culture in the Southwest, alongside writing, literature, and journalism.
CitySports Magazine · San Francisco, California
Feature articles, photography, and content composition for the national-edition publication.
Red River Watershed Group · Red River, New Mexico
Researched, wrote, designed, and published newsletters supporting watershed advocacy.
“Of Spiders and Sheep: A Diné Weaver.” Trend, 2026
“From Cloudberries to Chanterelles: Balkan Culinary Tourism and the Helsinki Herring Festival.” The Journal of Culinary Tourism, 2022
Regular contributor — High Country (1999–2018) and Snow Country (2000–2021)
Arts, history & culture columns — The Taos News (2001–2018)
“Ursa Major.” La Puerta, 2nd ed., Kendall Hunt, 1999
“Dakota: A Spiritual Geography Revisited.” Public Voices, Private Lives, Univ. of North Texas Press, 1995
Private Voices, Public Lives (Univ. of North Texas Press) · Storied Wheels (SOMOS, Taos) · Drinking from the Stream · Unplugged Voices (Phoenix Mirage Books)
FULL PORTFOLIO — MICHELEPOTTER.COM