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You are here: Home / Women / Lunch with Teri / Dinner with Alice / Weekends with Sarah

Lunch with Teri / Dinner with Alice / Weekends with Sarah

January 28th, 2016 by Sallie Bingham in Women 2 Comments

Sarah and I

Sarah and I

In the midst of all the vicissitudes of life, I find myself ever more grateful for my women friends—few, of course, are in my very closest circle, the circle I’ve named the Circle of Trust. These are the women I know I can call on in times of need—fortunately, quite rare—who will understand what I want perhaps better than my relatives, who oversee my progress toward some form of wisdom with courage, humor and compassion. And, above all, tell me the truth.

Over the years, we’ve developed reliable rituals that bind us together and give passing time meaning.

Teri, whom I’ve known since she was my first neighbor here in Santa Fe twenty-five years ago, has lunch with me one Sunday a month, almost without fail. I go to church most Sunday mornings and she has her Sangha many Sunday afternoons but between these two pillar posts, we managed to squeeze in at least an hour and a half for hamburgers or salads—and for me sometimes a mild Bloody Mary—at our favorite restaurant. Every Sunday we discuss going somewhere new and every Sunday we find ourselves again at the Rio Chama, deserted at this hour, sitting in the same booth. We’ve observed the rise and fall of various chefs with equanimity; only one, who couldn’t for the life of him produce a medium-rare burger, needed to disappear, and did.

What do we talk about? Family, of course—it’s unavoidable; Teri’s two long-grown children, my three, her four grandchildren, my five. But, more pertinently and possibly more interestingly, the life of books and politics in Santa Fe. Teri never misses the Planned Parenthood annual luncheon, I am usually full of the doings of the local ACLU. Teri survived a nearly fatal car accident a few years ago, coming back full of steam and with her lovely appreciation of life unhindered. I do believe we are blessed to know each other.

These are the women I know I can call on in times of need...who will understand what I want, oversee my progress toward some form of wisdom with courage, humor and compassion—and, above all, tell me the truth.

My cosmopolitan filmmaker, writer, painter and accomplished equestrienne (she drives her own horse trailer to competitions), Alice has spent many years in the big world; multitalented, she sometimes shoots sparks in all directions. With her adorable husband, she lives on Big Dog Ranch, south of town, managing horses, dogs, multitudinous friends, various houses and the many twists and turns of her creative life with aplomb. I am more easily overwhelmed and so her equanimity is precious to me; when she leaves for the Rhode Island shore in August, I feel the hole in my life. I will never forget meeting Alice at the MacDowell Colony in southern New Hampshire years ago; she first caught my attention because she had brought along a horse.

Sarah is the friend I have known for the most years. We met in Louisville sometime in the 1980’s, and I witnessed the birthing of her press, Sarabande Books. With a tiny cadre of talented women, she publishes twelve beautiful books a year, with the exquisite detail we so seldom find in books put out by the commercial presses. Wisely, she limits her lists to collections of poetry and prose, and her books are reviewed favorably all over the country, most recently with a full-page spread in the New York Times Book Review. When she visits me, we hike, eat and talk about the dramatic changes in the field of literature, which Sarabande Books has managed to enfold. And we talk about my new short stories, which she will be publishing in the next few years. The working title is Not Yet Now: Short Stories and Time.

How blessed I am to find my life supported and enriched by these three women. Their friendships run like bright sustaining threads through the vivid, sometimes chaotic, patchwork of my life.

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In Women Sarabande Books Friends Macdowell Colony

A long and fruitful career as a writer began in 1960 with the publication of Sallie Bingham's novel, After Such Knowledge. This was followed by 15 collections of short stories in addition to novels, memoirs and plays, as well as the 2020 biography The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke.

Her latest book, Taken by the Shawnee, is a work of historical fiction published by Turtle Point Press in June of 2024. Her previous memoir, Little Brother, was published by Sarabande Books in 2022. Her short story, "What I Learned From Fat Annie" won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize in 2023 and the story "How Daddy Lost His Ear," from her forthcoming short story collection How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (September 23, 2025), received second prize in the 2023 Sean O’Faolain Short Story Competition.

She is an active and involved feminist, working for women’s empowerment, who founded the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which gives grants to Kentucky artists and writers who are feminists, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University, and the Women’s Project and Productions in New York City. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sallie's complete biography is available here.

Comments

  1. Nadine Stafford on Facebook says

    January 28th, 2016 at 1:27 pm

    And all your friends are fortunate to have you!

    Reply
  2. John Capps on Facebook says

    January 29th, 2016 at 4:59 pm

    God bless you

    Reply

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Watch Sallie

Taken By The Shawnee

Taken By The Shawnee

July 6th, 2025
Sallie Bingham introduces and reads from her latest work, Taken by the Shawnee.
Visiting Linda Stein

Visiting Linda Stein

March 3rd, 2025
Back on October 28th, 2008, I visited artist Linda Stein's studio in New York City and tried on a few of her handmade suits of armor.

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Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

November 8th, 2024
This event was recorded November 1, 2024 in Taos, NM at SOMOS Salon & Bookshop by KCEI Radio, Red River/Taos and broadcast on November 8, 2024.
Taken by the Shawnee Reading

Taken by the Shawnee Reading

September 1st, 2024
This reading took place at The Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe, New Mexico in August of 2024.

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Sallie Bingham's latest is a captivating account of ancestor's ordeal
Pasatiempo, The Santa Fe New Mexican

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