Sallie Bingham

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You are here: Home / New Mexico / New Year’s Affirmation

New Year’s Affirmation

January 4th, 2018 by Sallie Bingham in New Mexico 2 Comments

“In the bleak midwinter. Frosty wind made moan. Earth stood hard as iron. Water like a stone.”

Harold Darke’s description doesn’t match the ominously sunny, warm and dry weather here in the Southwest on the first day of the New Year—but this weather is more in tune with the hope of the day:

And so I sing first in praise of our beautiful, hard-working bodies—no matter what our age; they have served us well from the moment we first put our feet on the surface of the earth and continue to serve us well in bad and good times, steadily marching us on into the mysteries;

Second I sing in praise of our glorious minds, full of the sparks of genius, even in the darkest time;

My wish for all my loyal readers and for the world at large in this fresh new year.

Then, the miracle of our voices, ringing out across the land in song as well as in yelps and shouts of celebration;

And last of all and most important, our proudly pumping hearts.

Those hearts fuel the daily and hourly labor of all the people who keep us going: the waiters whose names we don’t know, whose eyes we avoid; the parking lot attendants of whom we only request change; the bank tellers anonymous behind their counters; the repairers of all our broken appliances who come and go like shadows.

I’m resolved to begin asking their names, looking at their faces.

Our hearts also fuel the intrepid dancers who grace the floor at the dance studio here, Lawrence Black’s creation: Dance Station. These photos from our last Showcase show some of the spirit and finesse we have learned there—and they are the spirit of the New Year.

A slogan on a bench near a bus stop here says it all:

LAUGH OFTEN
LOVE WELL.

My wish for all my loyal readers and for the world at large in this fresh new year.

Dance Station, Santa Fe, NM
Dance Station, Santa Fe, NM
Dance Station, Santa Fe, NM
Dance Station, Santa Fe, NM

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In New Mexico dancing New Year's

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. James R. Voyles says

    January 4th, 2018 at 9:45 am

    That’s you in the gorgeous, backless gown! Bravo, Sallie!

    Reply
  2. Bonnie Lee Black on Facebook says

    January 4th, 2018 at 10:36 am

    I’m singing with you, Sallie!

    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.
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Visiting Linda Stein

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Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

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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

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

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salliebingham avatar Sallie Bingham @salliebingham ·
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Years ago a man I was in love with persuaded me to have a large fish pond dug near my studio. I think it was his attempt to be part of my necessarily solitary life there; like other such attempts it failed—and now I'm left with the fish pond! https://buff.ly/fGgnN39 #Koi #KoiPond

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salliebingham avatar Sallie Bingham @salliebingham ·
30 Jun 1939751124925390864

Our wisdom outlasts kingdoms and democracies and tyrannies. It is for all places all people and all times. Unfortunately our wisdom can be bought, suborned, which is what I see in all the pretty women around Mr. T. "Lady Wisdom": https://buff.ly/mKAYBnf #HagiaSophia #DonaldTrump

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

“I felt she was with me” during the process of writing the book, Bingham says. “I felt I wasn’t writing anything that would have seemed to her false or unreal.”

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