The editors of Terrain.org, the Sowell Family Collection in Literature, Community and the Natural World, and Texas Tech University Press are delighted to announce the winner of the 2026 Sowell Emerging Writers Prize: The Greenhorn by Grace Schwenk.
Schwenk wins $1,000 and publication of her memoir by Texas Tech University Press, as well as a residency of up to two weeks at the Lopez Cottage on the Mackenzie and an additional $1,000 toward travel expenses for the residency courtesy of the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University.
The Greenhorn spans the last two summers Schwenk spent trekking through the Bitterroots on a wildland fire crew. As her second season comes to a close, she finishes the season early to start her graduate program, teach part-time, and move in with her partner of two years. On this path, she can see a clear and stable life unfurling before her, one that conforms to all societal expectations. But, with every class she attends and essay she grades, she feels a restless discontent growing inside.
On a dreary December day, she receives an offer to staff a fire lookout on the Payette National Forest in Idaho. Accepting the position would mean taking time off from school, choosing not to renew her teaching contract, and leaving her partner behind. She’s hesitant, if only for a moment, before accepting the job, in hopes that solitude and time on the mountain will quiet the restlessness she feels growing inside.
The Greenhorn is Schwenk’s account of the four months she spent at the Granite Mountain Lookout in south central Idaho’s Grass Mountains. There she navigates both the internal and external landscapes, all while forming connections with fellow lookout attendants, her friends, family, nature, a resident mountain goat, the mountain, and ultimately, herself.
Grace Schwenk is a writer from Missoula, Montana. Most of her writing is done from a fire lookout in the Payette National Forest of Idaho. When not writing or looking for smokes, she can be found getting lost in the mountains with her fluffy white dog, Selway.
The Greenhorn will be published by Texas Tech University Press in Spring 2027.
Congratulations also to the 2026 Sowell Emerging Writers Prize finalists:
- Good Lands of Mercy by Lee Gallaway-Mitchell
- Homecomer: A Memoir in Essays by Emma Kaiser
- Endangered Abundance: A Memoir of Wildlife, Science, Conflict, and Resolution by Lawrence Niles
- The Cahaba Meanders by Dawne Shand
- My Father’s Blood by Jeremy Tavares.
Header photo: Grace Schwenk.
