Year of Award

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Degree Name

Creative Writing (Nonfiction)

Department or School/College

English

Committee Chair

Chris Dombrowski

Commitee Members

Katie Kane, Lee Banville

Keywords

The West, outdoors, memoir, culture, society

Subject Categories

Critical and Cultural Studies | Nonfiction | Other American Studies | Other Philosophy | Other Political Science | Politics and Social Change | Social and Cultural Anthropology | Social Justice

Abstract

The American West is a shifting landscape. An incongruous expanse of isolation and urbanity, wilderness and extraction, wealth and welfare, clear water and fire. Fifteen years ago, I moved to my mother’s ancestral homeland of Montana, and have been here ever since. Before that, I was born and raised in Texas, both the West and the South (and often something else entirely), depending on who you ask. My experiences in this region have shaped me indelibly, and have inspired this collection of essays built around culture, politics, and justice in the West. “Pinedale, Wyoming” considers the musician as itinerant wanderer in a town of societal extremes. “Ralph Jensen 1975” reveals first-hand what is lost in the wake of gentrification and real estate development in a growing mid-sized city. “On Garbage” details the monopolization and corporate pettiness at the heart of Missoula’s trash war. “Struggle and Monofilament” reckons with reformation after a lifetime of angling and a decade in the fly fishing industry. “Bodies at Black Eagle” wrestles with death, poverty, drug addiction, and carp in Great Falls. Like the disparate American West itself, the essays here possess a commitment to both the personal and the public, a melding of memoiristic and journalistic styles.

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© Copyright 2026 Brady Schwertfeger