Benjamin Radford Wins Book Award

Benjamin Radford was one of three University of New Mexico Press authors who won 2015 Southwest Book Awards from the Border Regional Library Association. Radford’s book, Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Enchantment, examines a dozen unusual and mysterious places and events around New Mexico, including investigations into the KiMo Theater ghost, reports of La Llorona, miracles, UFO crashes, and much more. Longtime Corrales carpenter Mick Harper served as a consultant for one of the mysteries, the Loretto Staircase in Santa Fe.

Last year “Mysterious New Mexico” also won the 2015 Southwest Book Design Award from the New Mexico Book Association. The cover features a photograph of La Llorona, the weeping woman of Hispanic folklore. Radford is author, co-author, contributor, or editor of over 20 books including “Bad Clowns,” which was released earlier this week on Kindle. The other two winning titles are “Advocates for the Oppressed: Hispanos, Indians, Genízaros, and Their Land in New Mexico” by Malcom Ebright, and “Laguna Pueblo: A Photographic History,” by Lee Marmon and Tom Corbett. The awards, which recognize outstanding books about the Southwest, will be presented on Saturday, Feb. 27 at the Border Regional Library Association’s awards banquet in Sunland Park, New Mexico.