The Forbidden

By Jacob Penick — People Editor

John Nizalowski is a wordsmith who wails upon his hot steel words with the hammer of Southwestern culture and spirituality. His latest book is up for a Colorado Book Award for creative non-fiction.

The word cinnamon has a different meaning to John Nizalowksi, and it will to you as well as soon as you dive into his work. 

“The spice evokes the visual quality of the Southwest as well as the taste of the southwest,” John said. Cinnamon is a spice. Who’da thunk? But, to Nizalowski, it’s an adjective that neatly compiles the taste, smell, and color of the land that he writes about. Cinnamon lands. Cinnamon air. It’s all in the spirit of describing the spirit of the land that so captivates Nizalowski’s own spirit. 

Chronicles of the Forbidden is Nizalowski’s latest work, a compilation of essays so intriguing that the Colorado Book Awards have determined it a finalist in their Creative Nonfiction section. 

Reading the first few pages, it’s no wonder why the book receives such high praise. 

“He absorbs the movement of his trajectory and incorporates meticulous detail and grace in the images and poetry in his writing,” said Kitty King, a producer who worked on The Bridge to Terabithia, in her personal review of the book. 

Nizalowski’s deeply considered stories grab the reader’s hand and shove them through desert landscapes described with such fluid English that it’s no question what the reader is meant to see in their mind’s eye while reading. Landscape is a key theme, but so is spirituality.

Nizalowski’s recounts of spiritual experiences in the Southwest all but buy the reader a tank of gas and a camp stove and bid them safe travels in the desert. In the very first chapter, Nizalowski speaks of unidentifiable energies found in sacred places. Sacred because of legend, but also sacred because of his own interpretation. Nizalowski builds landscapes using gravity–heavy words. 

Nizalowski is originally from upstate New York. It wasn’t until a six-month romp around the West with his then-wife that he decided to settle in New Mexico. 

“I just really got seized by the power of the place, the beauty, and especially for me the mysticism of the Pueblo Indians,” said Nizalowski.

Nizalowksi’s connection with Native American spirituality is made abundantly clear in the second piece in Chronicles, Night at World’s Center. This selection, in fact, outlines the very moment he and his then-wife fell head -over-heels in love with the Southwest, New Mexico especially. Any lover of this region would immediately relate. 

This story in particular dives deeply into knowledge and mysticism held by Native Americans that is not normally seen by you and I. Nizalowski deeply respects the meaningfulness of his experiences and is cautious when telling his tales. Native American spirituality is a sacred world, not meant for the public. 

“It’s a living culture, a living mythology,” said Nizalowski. “I get reluctant to talk about these things.” 

Nizalowski acknowledges that putting these wild experiences into words takes away from them a little bit. But he so truly wants to share. And so he has. But he hasn’t shared everything; out of respect for Native people and sacred places, Nizalowski keeps some stories to himself. A reader of Chronicles is lucky to have been able to see the shore of a vast ocean.

Each piece in Chronicles is woven with spiritual significance. Not from a secular religious perspective, but from the perspective of an open mind. A mind ready to accept and appreciate raw experience.

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