## SHORT BIO (50 words)
Alex Rivera maps the uncharted territories of memory and migration in *Echoes of Forgotten Rivers*, a literary novel tracing a cartographer's quest through lost indigenous waterways. A former park ranger who traded compasses for keyboards, Rivera lives in Santa Fe, where he's charting a sequel amid monsoon sketches. (48 words)

## MEDIUM BIO (150 words)
Alex Rivera, former National Park Service ranger, brings the precision of fieldwork to fiction with *Echoes of Forgotten Rivers*, his debut novel that follows a cartographer unraveling ancestral maps along forgotten desert rivers, blending geography with the ghosts of displacement. Drawing from years patrolling New Mexico's wilds, Rivera crafts stories where landscapes whisper human histories. He left ranger life after a decade to write full-time, fueled by childhood hikes with his geologist father and late-night poring over old topographical sheets. His prose has appeared in *High Country News* and *Orion*. Rivera resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, knee-deep in research for the book's sequel, which ventures into mountain passes. (128 words)

## LONG BIO (300 words)
Alex Rivera's path to fiction wound through the red-rock canyons of New Mexico, where he spent a decade as a National Park Service ranger, leading hikes and mapping trails that sparked his obsession with how places hold people. Born in Albuquerque to a Mexican-American mother and a geologist father, he grew up sketching arroyos and tracing rivers on napkins, a habit that evolved into storytelling. After witnessing climate-eroded landscapes firsthand—flash floods swallowing petroglyphs, invasive species choking waterways—Rivera turned those observations into *Echoes of Forgotten Rivers*, a novel where protagonist Elena Vargas, a disillusioned cartographer, follows vanishing indigenous waterways from the Rio Grande to hidden springs, confronting family secrets and colonial erasures etched in the land.

His writing draws from influences like Leslie Marmon Silko's earth-bound narratives and Barry Lopez's precise lyricism, weaving environmental detail with emotional cartography. Though new to novels, Rivera's essays on public lands and migration have graced *High Country News*, *Orion*, and *Terrain.org*, earning quiet acclaim for their tactile honesty. *Echoes* marks his pivot to fiction, born from pandemic downtime when he pored over historical maps in his Santa Fe adobe.

Looking ahead, Rivera is scouting locations for the sequel, which sends Elena into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, probing higher altitudes and deeper betrayals. He teaches occasional workshops on place-based writing at local community colleges, mentors young rangers on journaling, and volunteers mapping urban trails. In a world redrawing its borders, Rivera's work insists on remembering the lines we've lost. He lives in Santa Fe with his wife, a botanist, and their border collie, amid stacks of USGS quad maps and half-finished poems. (278 words)

## FIRST-PERSON "ABOUT ME" (100 words)
I write to make the invisible visible—those hidden rivers and buried stories that shape us. In *Echoes of Forgotten Rivers*, my cartographer digs up old maps and family ghosts along New Mexico's dry beds. After ten years as a park ranger, dodging rattlesnakes and flash floods, I traded boots for a desk. Now in Santa Fe, I'm lost in the sequel, fueled by strong coffee and stronger sunsets. If a trail calls, you'll find me there, notebook in hand. Let's wander. (92 words)

## SOCIAL HANDLE BIOS
- **Twitter/X (160 chars):** Cartographer of forgotten rivers & family ghosts. *Echoes of Forgotten Rivers* out now—mapping displacement one bend at a time. Ex-ranger, Santa Fe scribbler. #LitFiction #DesertNoir @AlexRiveraWrites (138 chars)

- **Instagram (150 chars):**
Tracing lost rivers in *Echoes of Forgotten Rivers* 📍  
Ex-ranger turned novelist.  
Desert hikes, old maps, new stories.  
Santa Fe → Sequel scouting 🗺️🌵  
@AlexRiveraWrites

(112 chars)

- **LinkedIn (220 chars):** Alex Rivera is the author of *Echoes of Forgotten Rivers*, a literary novel exploring cartography, migration, and erased landscapes through a New Mexico lens. Former National Park Service ranger (10+ years); contributor to *High Country News* and *Orion*. Based in Santa Fe, developing sequel. Open to speaking on place-based writing. (238 chars)

## AUTHOR PHOTO CAPTION
Alex Rivera plots his next literary trail in his Santa Fe studio, surrounded by maps that inspired *Echoes of Forgotten Rivers*. Photo credit: Maria Lopez.

## MEDIA CONTACT BLOCK
Alex Rivera  
alex@alexriverrawrites.com  
(505) 555-0197  
alexriverrawrites.com  
Twitter/X: @AlexRiveraWrites | Instagram: @AlexRiveraWrites | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexriverrawrites