Michael McGarrity, renowned New Mexican author, holds a BA with distinction in psychology and a master's degree in clinical social work. As an undergraduate, he held a Ford Foundation Scholarship at the University of New Mexico. Additionally, he is an honor graduate of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy. His career in criminal justice included work in corrections, law enforcement, security, police officer training, and serving as an expert witness to the court.
With the publication of “Tularosa” in 1996, McGarrity turned to writing full time. He lives in Santa Fe New Mexico with his college sweetheart, Emily Beth (Mimi). His son, Sean Eli, who created the maps for the books and takes the author's publicity photographs, also lives in Santa Fe.
A number of his best selling novels have been nominated for various awards, and in 2004 he received the New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts — Literature. His newest book, Hard Country, scheduled for release in June 2012, is the first book in a family saga trilogy, which spans four generations and a hundred years of New Mexico history. Set in the Tularosa Basin of south central New Mexico, Hard Country encompasses the lives and times of the Kerney family from the territorial days through the end of World War One. A prequel to McGarrity’s Kevin Kerney’s crime novels, Hard Country tells the epic story of one family’s struggle to survive through drought, range wars, floods, Indian raids, and lawlessness in the last frontier of the old west.
Wes Studi is the well respected Cherokee actor known for his portrayals in Avatar, The Last of the Mohicans, Coyote Waits and Thief of Time, Geronimo, Dances with Wolves, Heat, The Only Good Indian, PBS’ We Shall Remain, Kings, and HBO’s Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, Streets of Laredo, TNT’s Crazy Horse, among many more performances. He produced and directed Bonnie Looks Away and Coyote Chews his Own Tale. Wes speaks fluent Cherokee and is the spokesperson for the Indigenous Language Institute. Among many awards for humanitarian and artistic success, Wes earned the Governor's Award for Excellence in New Mexico.
Wes is married to Screenwriter Maura Dhu Studi. Both are members of the Silver Bullet Productions Board of Advisors. Wes has directed over half dozen student workshops for SBP in Zuni, Laguna/Acoma, Cochiti, Taos, Santo Domingo, and Zia Pueblos.
Kirk Ellis won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, a WGA Award, a Peabody and the Humanitas Prize for his work on the HBO miniseries “John Adams.” The miniseries won a record breaking 13 Emmys in total, as well as four Golden Globe awards. Previously, Ellis received an Emmy nomination and won the WGA Award and Humanitas Prize for the ABC miniseries “Anne Frank,” which he wrote and co-produced. His miniseries “Into the West,” “Life With Judy Garland” and “The Beach Boys: An American Family,” all received multiple Emmy nominations.
Upcoming feature projects include a two-film biography of the Marquis de Lafayette for director Jean-Francois Richet (“Mesrine”) and Oscar-nominated Why Not Productions; the Mormon polygamy drama “Escape,” for director Lasse Hallstrom and star Katherine Heigl; and “Flying Tigers,” a story of the famed WWII fighter pilots, for Fox and New Regency. For television, he is writing a pilot for HBO and George Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions about the agribusiness world, and another for Starz about the early years of the O.S.S., the precursor to the C.I.A. Kirk serves as chairman of the Santa Fe, New Mexico Arts Commission, and on the board of directors of Western Writers of America.