Hi! I’m Allison. I’m a writer as my full-time job and side gig, writing nonfiction, editorials, magazine articles, poetry, SEO blogs, travel pieces, and more. 

I work full time in marketing and communications for an educational institution and previously worked in a similar capacity in health care. I’m a freelance content writer for technology, healthcare, and tourism companies and I’ve written personal essay pieces for Alaska Magazine, High Country News, and Montana Magazine.  

I’m originally from southern Idaho, where I spent my childhood trying to find the most remote corners of the high desert with my family and learned a lot about wind chill factors. I earned bachelors degrees from Boise State University in English Writing and Spanish.

In 2015, I graduated with an MFA in creative writing from the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. While in grad school, I worked with an amazing team as the Editor-in-Chief for CutBank Literary Magazine. I also operated the Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center in the off-season and worked in aircraft dispatch for wildland fire in the summers.

My ‘first career’ was an immersive experience in MREs and Nomex working for the US Forest Service for 14 years across Idaho, California, and Montana. I worked as a wilderness ranger, wildland firefighter, aircraft dispatcher, fire lookout, visitor information contact, writer-editor, and office automations clerk. My favorite job was working as a wilderness lookout at Jumbo Lookout, which you can read a little about here.

For fun, I like to learn new activities that remind me how my ballet training has not prepared me for lifelong sports like rafting, hunting, triathlon training, and holiday bike parades.

Awards

2019                         ’20 Under 40′ Young Professionals to Watch in the Flathead Valley

2019                          Accreditation in Public Relations (APR)

2015                          Brainerd Foundation Fellowship in Environmental Writing

2015                          Academy of American Poets Award, “Which is to Say“

2014                           Nettie Weber Travel Award Recipient, University of Montana

2014                           Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards, Finalist in Poetry 

Publications:

(links available on Creative Writing pages)

Nonfiction

2021                           Alaska Magazine, “It All Starts at the Yukon Bar,” April 2021

2016                           High Country News, “Wildfire in the West Has Become an Uncontrollable Force,” Writers on the Range, (syndicated to publications across the west) July 5, 2016

2016                           Montana Magazine, “CDT Montana:  An Outdoor Enthusiast Volunteer Mecca,” February 2016

2015                         Orion Magazine, “Place Where You Live:  Jumbo Lookout,” November 2015

2015                          Tahoma Literary Review, “Nature Writing, Undefined”

2015                           Montana Wilderness Association Website, various blog posts (please see Nonfiction, under Creative Writing)

2013                           Conserve Montana, “Out From Behind the Screen: Wilderness Changes Lives,” 2013 Conservation Story Contest Honorable Mention, November 2013

2013                           High Country News, “Let It Burn:  The Challenge of Learning to Live with Fire,” Writers on the Range, (syndicated to publications across the west) July 2, 2013

2013                           Assessment for a Wild and Scenic River, US Forest Service and National Park Service, January 2013

2009                           High Country News, “Out of the Nest and Into a Tent,” Writers on the Range, February 9, 2009

Poetry

2017                           Crab Orchard Review, “Obligation, North,” “Obligation, East,” “Obligation, South,” Obligation, West,”  August 2017

2015                           Tahoma Literary Review, “Den,” December 2015

2015                           Ghost Town, “Autobiography of Night,” “Which is to Say,” “Before Going Back,” October 2015

2015                           Bellingham Review, “Now, Hunger,” March 2015

2015                           West Trade Review, “You Are One Hundred,” “Rock Garden,” March 2015

2015                           Chatsworth Press Lonely Whale Anthology, “Basalt,” “Packing,” “Types of Evenings,” “Frost Moon,” February 2015

2014                           Cascadia Review, “Telling,” “Coordinates,” “Twenty-Seven,” “Driftwood Blanched,” October 2014

2011                           Whitefish Review, “Evaporation,” Volume Five, August 2011

2011                           The Sun Magazine, “Paying Attention,” Readers Write, July 2011

2011                           Cirque Journal, “The Most Silent You’ve Ever Seen Me,” Volume II, June 2011