Hi, I'm Austin, a writer, fly fishing guide, and former fire lookout. I'm also a former National Geographic Early Career Grantee and past recipient of a Fulbright Study/Research Grant to Papua New Guinea. In recent years my work as a writer and researcher has spanned Papua New Guinea, Finland, Egypt, New Zealand, Scotland, Montana, and southwest Florida. 

 

My writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Appalachia, The Drake, Notre Dame Magazine, the National Geographic online newsroom via the NatGeo Voices blog, and student publications at Oxford and Notre Dame. I'm interested in the intersection of cultures and environment, and my manuscript-in-progress about five summers as a fire lookout in the northern Rockies recently received the Merriam-Frontier Award, given annually to one manuscript in the University of Montana's creative writing program.

 

I hold an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Montana, a Master of Philosophy in anthropology from the University of Cambridge, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame. 

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Together with botanist Tiberius Jimbo, I've also made several hundred botanical collections of culturally significant Pacific plants with specimens stored at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (UK) and the National Herbarium of Lae (PNG).

 

I live in Montana with my wife, Jen, and our growing collection of fly rods and lookout stories.

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