Author Jeff Darren Muse book reading and signing of his book “Dear Park Ranger” in Santa Fe. Courtesy photo

COMMUNITY News:

Author Jeff Darren Muse, a former wilderness ranger at Bandelier National Monument and REI Santa Fe employee who now battles brain cancer will do a book reading and signing about his adventurous, nationwide memoir from 2-3 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 16, at REI, 500 Market Street, Suite 100, Santa Fe, NM 87501.

A fatherless, childless Hoosier who wouldn’t and couldn’t stay put, Jeff Darren Muse has worked throughout the United States as an environmental educator, historical interpreter, and park ranger, most recently in New Mexico’s backcountry. In 2023, when Wayfarer Books published Dear Park Ranger as he worked for Bandelier National Monument, Muse was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer requiring surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Today, he participates in a clinical drug trial that helps him keep on keeping on. Muse will talk about his journey, past and present, in a presentation about his award-winning book, which Kirkus Reviews calls “(an) evocative consideration of the dualities of beauty and pain found both in nature and ourselves.” Books will be available for purchase at the event and Muse will sign copies after his reading.

Dear Park Ranger has been honored by Indiana Authors Awards, Nautilus Book Awards, and Foreword Reviews, which deemed it a finalist for a 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Award. Learn more at http://www.jeffdarrenmuse.com.