Honors

  • Winner, National Indie Excellence Awards, Regional Nonfiction: West, 2022
  • Winner, Silver Nautilus Book Award, Memoir & Personal Journey, 2022
  • Finalist, Colorado Book Awards, Creative Nonfiction, 2022
  • Finalist, Ellen Meloy Fund Desert Writers Award, 2022
  • Finalist, Best Book Awards, Animals/Pets: Narrative Nonfiction and Nonfiction: Creative, 2021
  • The Best American Essays 2021 Notable Essay
  • PEN Literary Award nomination for Desert Chrome, 2021
  • Runner-up, Fugue‘s Kim Barnes Prize, 2021
  • Finalist, Whitefish Review, Montana Prize for Fiction, 2021
  • Pushcart Prize nomination, 2020
  • Winner, New Millennium Writings Musepaper Essay Prize, 2019
  • Finalist, Ellen Meloy Fund Desert Writers Award, 2019
  • Finalist, Waterston Desert Writing Prize, 2018
  • The Best American Essays 2016 Notable Essay
  • Finalist, Crab Orchard Review’s Rafael Torch Literary Nonfiction Award, 2016
  • Finalist, Crab Orchard Review‘s Rafael Torch Literary Nonfiction Award, 2016
  • Finalist, Ellen Meloy Fund Desert Writers Award, 2016
  • Writer-in-Residence, Denali National Park and Preserve Artist-in-Residence program, Winter 2016
  • Runner-up, bosque fiction prize, 2015
  • Finalist, Southern Indiana Review Thomas A. Wilhelmus Editors’ Award, 2014
  • Finalist, River Teeth, 2014
  • Honorable Mention, New Millennium Writings, 2014
  • Partial Fellowship, Summer Literary Seminars, 2014 (for two pieces)
  • Honorable Mention, New Millennium Writings, 2013
  • Second Place Winner, Tiny Lights Personal Essay Contest, 2012
  • Finalist, Summer Literary Seminars Unified Literary Contest, 2012
  • Elliot Cades Award nomination, 2011
  • Finalist, Writers@Work Fiction Competition 2010
  • Finalist, Richard J. Margolis Award of the BlueMountainCenter, 2009
  • Finalist, Dana Award for the Novel, 2009
  • Finalist, Southern Indiana Review Mary C. Mohr Nonfiction Award, 2009
  • The Best American Essays 2009 Notable Essay
  • Winner, Fourth Genre’s Editor’s Prize for Best Essay/Memoir, 2007
  • Finalist, Ellen Meloy Fund Desert Writers Award, 2007
  • Finalist, The Bear Deluxe Edward Abbey Fiction Award, 1999
  • Honorable Mention for the Heekin Group Foundation Juvenile Novel In Progress, 1998
  • Winner, Sierra magazine’s Write on the Wild Side competition, 1997
  • Honorable Mention, Writer’s Digest Writing Competition, 1996
  • Finalist, Spur Storyteller Award, 1995
  • Finalist, Write on the Wild Side competition, Sierra, 1995
  • Pushcart Prize nomination, 1994
  • Western Heritage Award nomination, 1994