MADE IN NEW MEXICO
DANIEL B. GIBSON
BIO
Daniel B. Gibson was born in 1954 and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At age 16, he embarked on a year and a half trans-Pacific sailing voyage for the production of a major 35-mm documentary film, Cutting Loose (Cinema Center Films, producer/director James Lipscomb), and book by the same name (Little, Brown), which included some of his writing.
He then studied journalism and photography at the University of New Mexico, graduating with a BA in 1979. He worked for several years as arts editor and a general reporter for the Albuquerque News, then served for almost four years as a Public Information Officer III for the New Mexico Office of Indian Affairs in Santa Fe.
He has since worked as a freelance writer and editor for local, regional and national publications, including the NY Times, LA Times, American Way, The World & I, Outside, Sierra, ARTnews, Animals, Ski, Powder, Diversion, the Santa Fean (28 cover stories), Cowboys & Indians, New Mexico Magazine, Southwest Art and Indian Artist. He served as editor of Native Peoples magazine—the world’s leading journal on contemporary American Indian arts, culture and life—from 2001-2013. He has also served as editor on dozens of issues of various annual magazines, including Indian Market Magazine, Land Water People Time and Spanish Market Magazine, and on several books.
Gibson has written four major guidebooks, including Pueblos of the Rio Grande: A Visitor’s Guide (Dec. 2001, Rio Nuevo Publishing, winner of the 2002 ForeWord magazine Gold Award for small/university presses for best travel book), American Southwest (May 1999, John Muir/Avalon, eds. 2 & 3), New Mexico (May 1998, John Muir Publications/Avalon), Audubon Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges: Southwest (May 2000, St. Martin’s), and Skiing New Mexico: A Guide to Snow Sports in the Land off Enchantment (UNM Press, 2018).
He is also the author of the large-format book Kevin Red Star: Crow Indian Artist, (Sept. 2014) by Gibbs Smith, with photography by Kitty Leaken.
For four years he served as an environmental and natural history columnist for the Santa Fe Reporter, and has written a weekly snow sports column—“Snow Trax" since 1994 that currently runs in the Santa Fe New Mexican. He also served for almost three years as the president of PEN New Mexico.
In 2011 he began another career as a professional guide. He first served as a lead guide for Southwest Odyssey Tours in northern New Mexico, planning and pricing itineraries, and conducting guided drives and hikes to cultural, scenic and cultural attractions—historical and contemporary. He next acted as lead hiking guide for Sunrise Springs Resort in La Cienega, and is currently a Group Leader and lecturer for Road Scholar, conducting large group tours of New Mexico and the American Southwest for the noted nonprofit international travel company.
He lives in Santa Fe, where he co-parented a son and daughter, and is married to photographer Kitty Leaken. He loves to fish, ski and garden. He has been cultivating thousand-year-old Gila squash seeds.
