An Evening with Ginger Pinholster in conversation with Crissa-Jean Chappell
About this Event
🎟 This event is FREE and open to the public, and books will be available for purchase the night of the event! An RSVP grants general entry, but seating is not guaranteed, so please try to show up early. Please RSVP only if you intend to join us. Can't make the event?
About The Book
In the 1880s, sixteen-year-old Chenoa, a gifted Tewa potter, boards one of the first trains from Española to Santa Fe, desperate to save her family from a bitter winter. Her journey sets in motion a legacy shaped by survival, sacrifice, and silence. Generations later, her granddaughter Rose, now elderly and ailing, pleads with Jonah—a kind-hearted nursing home orderly—to help uncover the truth of her stolen Native heritage before it’s lost forever. As Jonah searches for answers, he grapples with his own struggles: raising his young son and falling for Jemi, a wounded veteran who longs to return to Bluebird Mountain. As their lives intersect, long-buried truths rise to the surface, revealing the enduring scars of colonization—and the strength required to heal. Inspired by historical accounts, The Train to Santa Fe imagines the impact of the railroad’s arrival in northern New Mexico, tracing one family’s story across generations. It’s a powerful tale of cultural loss, love, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.
About The Author
Pushcart Prize nominee Ginger Pinholster— an avid volunteer with Florida’s Volusia Turtle Patrol and the Marine Science Center— earned her M.F.A. degree from Queens University of Charlotte. Her second novel, Snakes of St. Augustine, was called “ relentlessly beautiful and compelling.” In 2024, Pinholster received a first-place fiction prize from Prime Number Magazine. City in a Forest, her first novel, won a gold Florida Writers Association award. A science writer for nearly four decades, she is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
About The Moderator
Crissa-Jean Chappell was born in Miami and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of several award-winning novels including Total Constant Order (a VOYA Perfect Ten) and Snowbirds (“...an engrossing mystery...” School Library Journal). Her most recent novel is Sun Don’t Shine (a Children’s Book Council Favorite). She holds a PhD and MFA from the University of Miami and is a professor of creative writing at Lehman College.
Where is it happening?
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