In 2010 we lost one of our own. Emily Lan­dis, who near-singlehandedly kept the Guide afloat in 2009, took her own life at 25. Albu­querque is poorer for her absence.

Emily came from Keene, NH after col­lege. A sear­ingly active mind, she sought deep expla­na­tions and expected the best from her friends. A gifted cook, gram­mar­ian and fiercely loyal friend, her real pas­sion was as a troubled-youth Eng­lish teacher. In the last year of her life, she could be heard almost croon­ing over the decreas­ing num­ber of fights in her Juvi class­room, and seemed to be on the verge of redefin­ing her depart­ment cur­ricu­lum. She could slam a Guin­ness with the best, and insisted on only the finest Irish punk (Pogues, mostly) and sighed deeply at the men­tion of Alice, above other Tom Waits records. It’s rare to meet some­one so tal­ented at turn­ing a shit deal into a win­ning hand.

We know she missed the ocean, hard, and Albu­querque was hard on her. She also lost sev­eral friends while here to tragic circumstances.

She often referred to the Guide as a life-saver, cap­ping her spec­tac­u­lar sales record with insight­ful and room-lifting meet­ing pres­ence. She leaves many rel­a­tives and innu­mer­able friends. We miss her dearly.