Oriana Rodman

I lived in New Jersey’s Ramapo River Valley before settling in Santa Fe, New Mexico over two decades ago. Alternating my time between writing and painting, I have most enjoyed being a storyteller in both disciplines.

My mother, the Newbery Award winning author, Maia Wojciechowska, was incredible at storytelling, both in writing and conversation. Relating the exploits of her life traveling through Europe during WWII, (Till the Break of Day), to her tale of a boy destined to be a bullfighter in Spain (Shadow of a Bull), and even to the far-fetched description of my birth - all could hold an audience enthralled, and in the latter case, elicit raucous laughter.

My father, Selden Rodman, an editor of poetry anthologies and writer of books on art, literature, and travel, was a champion of Haiti (Haiti: The Black Republic) and its art movement (Where Art is Joy). He was also an avid collector. What I loved most about the Haitian art I grew up with were the stories the paintings so often depicted – from works referencing Haiti’s fight for independence to how zombies are led from their graves to work for their masters.

Unanswered Howls, Stories of the Caja del Rio, takes place in and around Santa Fe and particularly in an area called the Caja del Rio, 84,000 acres of undeveloped lands with hundreds of miles of trails and an abundance of wildlife. On numerous trips taken to the Caja with my partner, the poet and falconer, Gary Worth Moody, I was shown ancient petroglyphs, a golden eagle’s nest guarded by the pair, a seemingly bottomless volcanic vent, and many more. Getting to these sites always took a long while in his 4-wheel drive truck and on foot, and in my mind, I began to imagine stories. When I learned that wolves no longer ranged in the Caja, my book took shape. I would put a wolf on the Caja and see what developed. So, the book - Unanswered Howls - Stories of the Caja del Rio. Here is a description in a nutshell:

On the outskirts of Santa Fe, in the remarkable landscape of the Caja del Rio, a variety of characters and a lone wolf answer the call of the wild, each according to their nature.