One of many monikers found on train cars.
Blue Mesa Review issue 42 cover
Montana Quarterly (Essay, forthcoming fall 2025)
Talk Vomit (Essay, 2024)
In the middle of the night, a ewe was on her side. Two hooves and a tiny nose erupted from beneath her tail, then half a slimy body. Too early, another set of hooves came squeezed alongside the first; the twins were coming at the same time.
Permafrost Issue 42.2 (Essay, 2021)
On the farm, my family’s dogs had total freedom. They came home carrying the smells of the day: irrigation ditch, deer carcass, fresh-cut alfalfa. That’s the world our pointy brown Frankie came from, picked up a wild Montana dog at eight months old, tough and wary, her paws a bouquet of smells. If I lean into her neck too long, I know she’ll growl. Two weeks ago, she gleefully killed a squirrel. She doesn’t need me; she only allows me to love her.
Winner — Blue Mesa Review Summer 2020 Nonfiction Prize
Writer Amy Irvine, judge of the nonfiction contest, wrote, “‘Feast Day’ is beautiful and daring in its structure, fluid in its haunting commute between the visceral and numinous, the literal and metaphor. While this is not the first story to conflate the bodies of women and livestock, its indictment of the dumbing down, the stockade, is wildly original. Pulsing with paradox and a rage that should be understood as fierce devotion, ‘Feast Day’ bucks at the idea that domestic and docile are saintly qualities for any female body, and does so with a rare and nuanced intelligence.”
Joyland (Essay, Oct. 17, 2019)
Reading Wired magazine on the toilet at his parents’ house in 2012, Randon learned about Bitcoin.
When the cryptocurrency was still young and cheap, he invested. Five years
later it reached peak value and for a few months he was a multimillionaire
— he’s shown me the graph. To indicate when he stopped cashing out, his
cursor hovered over the line just before its spike. He was worried
about tax season. After that peak, a steep decline.
"No Public Land Transfer" (Essay, 2017)
"Counting by Twos" (Essay, 2017) - Nonfiction (not available to read online)
News articles and "Truth Nukem" political column. For two years (2015-2017) I wrote articles regarding race, trans rights, the Flint water crisis, and more, for my hometown newspaper. Glasgow, MT, was found to be the literal “middle of nowhere” by The Washington Post. In writing political articles in my hometown, I found solidarity within the generally conservative community.
Due to the untimely and tragic closure of our treasured newspaper, The Missoula Independent no longer has a website. My essays and articles written for the Indy can no longer be viewed online.
"Rez Made photos offer a new take on New York City at MAM" (October 2017) - Looking at a series of photographs by high school students from the Flathead Reservation who traveled to NYC.
"Crystal Morey Creates a New American Mythology at Radius Gallery" (August 2017) - A review of ceramicist Crystal Morey's delicate and haunting porcelain figurines.
"Trouble Dealing With the Trauma of Trump? Try Laughing at Death" - In the wake of the election, I turn to Comedy/True Crime podcasts to deal.
"Necessary Fiction" - In Marshall Granger's indie-pop project, Dorothy, Granger taps into his feminine side to explore relationships in the age of the internet.
"Selling Missoula" - On selling Jon Krakauer's book, Missoula: Rape and Justice System in a College Town, at a local bookstore.
Book Review - Across the Plains With Bruno by Annick Smith
Book Review - American Copper by Shann Ray
"Supaman: The Rise of Crow Hip-hop"
Montana's Other Face -- An essay paired with Richard Hugo's poem, "Driving Montana"