The Santa Fe International Literary Festival begins today with various conversations with local and visiting authors from across the country. KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios spoke with Laura Paskus, an environmental writer and former “Our Land” host for New Mexico PBS. Paskus told KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios that people’s perspectives on environmentalism has changed since she first started reporting in 2002.
LAURA PASKUS: I think people today have a much better understanding of the link between pollution, profit, ailing public health and climate change and environmental catastrophes. And I think there are a lot of reasons for that, you know through the 90s and the 2000s there was a lot of really great environmental reporting. I think that the dominant culture has just started doing a better job actually paying attention to the people who have long standing knowledge of water landscapes and the connections between people and landscapes. So a rise in the dominant culture, paying attention to Indigenous knowledge, and I think we're seeing the impacts of climate change globally and in New Mexico are so obvious that you would have to be basically a lunatic to not notice or to deny the impacts of climate change.
KUNM: So you will be a part of the Santa Fe International Literary Festival. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
PASKUS: Yeah, I'm super excited. I'm participating in two different events. One is an interview with Priyanka Kumar, whose most recent book is “The Light Between Apple Trees.” Priyanka is a naturalist and a beautiful writer, and she lives in Santa Fe and we'll probably talk about things like birds and apples and climate change and things like that. And then the other panel is with Carolyn Fraser and Mariah Blake. And Mariah Blake's book “They Poison the World" is about PFAs, or forever chemicals. And Carolyn Frazier's book is “Murderl Land,” and it's about serial killers and the links between serial killers and lead smelters. And we're going to talk a lot about things like chemicals and heavy metals and industry and how some people built generational wealth on the backs of everybody else's health and the environment.
KUNM: And you're certainly a powerhouse with what you did at New Mexico PBS and often having whole shows committed to environmentalism and climate change. Given today right now, are there issues that still aren't being talked enough about?
PASKUS: Oh my gosh, they're still gaping holes in much of the media landscape when it comes to even making connections between weather patterns like heat waves and climate change, or really putting a finer point and context around river drying, like we see the Rio Grande drying already this year. I really have a lot of faith in audience members. I think New Mexicans in particular, are really smart and really want to be well informed. And so by not giving audiences that context, I think we're doing a great disservice to people and treating them with not much respect.
KUNM: Well, a lot of what we're talking about really goes into a book that you actually did recently. Can you give me a little synopsis of what “Water Bodies” is, and also, how did it get started?
PASKUS: Oh, thanks Jeanette for asking so “Water Bodies” was published in 2024 by Torrey House Press. They had approached me about doing a book on water, and at the time, I didn't have time to do an entire book myself, so what I did was created an anthology instead, and reached out to some of my favorite writers and asked them to contribute. So like here in New Mexico, some New Mexico voices include Michelle Otero, Liana Torres, Santana Shorty, Maria Lane, and then there's people from all across the West as well, but really focusing on personal stories and personal connections to our beloved water bodies in the western U.S.
KUNM: And Laura, I know you're always working on something. You even have a very cool podcast, Lesser Known New Mexico podcast, giving it a little shout out. But do you have any future plans on possibly working on another book?
PASKUS: I do. I'm in conversations with Torrey House press right now about a new book focused on New Mexico's rivers, and I am really excited to work with them again, and I'm really excited to spend this spring, summer and fall, doing a lot of field work around the state.
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