AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Martha Egan / Clearing Customs When confronted by Customs cops gone wild, veteran importer Martha Egan had a choice: she could lie down and take it or she could fight back. As she explains, "When life hands you bad cops, write a novel." An importer for over three decades, Ms. Egan is no stranger to transactions, positive and otherwise, with US Customs. She owns Latin American folk art gallery Pachamama on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. Egan began writing her first novel, Clearing Customs, in 1988, in response to the US Customs Service’s dirty little war on small import businesses like hers. Santa Fe’s Papalote Press published the book in Spring, 2005. Online Review of Books named Clearing Customs 2005 Fiction Book of the Year. Though Clearing Customs is her first novel, it is not her first book. In 1991, the Museum of New Mexico Press, published Milagros: Votive Offerings from the Americas; and in 1994, Relicarios: Devotional Miniatures from the Americas. She has also written essays for museum catalogues, books, and magazines in the US, Mexico, and Italy. Since 2002, The Santa Fe New Mexican has published her travel articles and photographs. Ms. Egan lectures on Latin American folk art, and appraises museum and private collections throughout the US. Ms. Egan’s interest in Latin American folk art began in the mid 60s in Mexico City, where she was a student at the Universidad de las Américas. She graduated in 1967 with a B.A. in Latin American History, then spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer working with credit unions in rural Venezuela. In addition to her literary and retail pursuits, Martha is an environmentalist, serving on the Corrales Air Toxics Task Force. She is a gardener, a foreign languages enthusiast, and a foodie. Ms. Egan enjoys world travel, bicycling along the Rio Grande, and being "Tia Marta" to her 43 nieces and nephews. She grew up in De Pere, Wisconsin and is a rabid Packers fan. Her home is in semi-rural New Mexico, where she lives with the ghost of an old cat.