Passenger Side

I recently contributed an essay to Montana Quarterly for its Fall 2023 issue. Titled “Passenger Side,” the piece talks about lessons learned from riding shotgun while growing up. It’s a story about pickups, muscle cars, and motorcycles. And grandmas.

“If you came of age in 1970s Montana, you probably did so in the passenger seat of a truck. Being hauled down farm roads or along clear-cuts through timber or just across town, you could spend a lot of hours staring at the glove box and at the world slipping by through pitted glass. Captive to the rolling view and the driver’s monologue, it was a place to form opinions about the world while new little bits of it unfurled around you.”

In March of 2024, “Passenger Side” received a Finalist honor from the Western Writers of America’s Spur Awards. The essay can be read here.