Vital Spaces is proud to announce Shirley Edmondson as the 2026 Poet in Residence, launching a new program dedicated to amplifying the written word through poetry, storytelling, and community voice!
Shirley Edmondson is a memoirist, poet, teacher, and workshop facilitator. Her work appears in Zora’s Journal: Breast Cancer Memoirs, Santa Fe Literary Review (Vol. 19, 2024), and the New Mexico/Arizona Book Award–winning anthology One Albuquerque: One Hundred Poets. She coauthored the Santa Fe Arts and Cultural Department’s 2024 Art Is the Solution grant project, Black in Santa Fe: Seen and Unseen, and co-wrote the accompanying film script, screened during Black History Month in 2025.
Shirley has led creative writing workshops across the Southwest and performed spoken word poetry nationwide. She is completing a memoir about breast cancer and a chapbook of poems responding to the current sociopolitical climate.
In Service of ARTists
Vital Spaces supports local, emerging & BIPOC artists and is inclusive of artists of all ages, religious beliefs, sexual orientations, and countries of origin. By providing affordable space, we provide venues for artists who might not otherwise know one another to come together in community and collaboration. We work to share this collaborative energy with the broader Santa Fe public through our programming.