Sublimity Canyon: A Novel

A decade after accidentally starting the worst wildfire in Montana’s history, Howell risks everything to finally break free from their past.


The great miracle of my life was that no one died.


After one reckless act in the Montana wilderness destroys millions of acres, Howell is sentenced to a decade of probation and fifty million dollars in restitution. They become frozen in the public imagination as the poster child for environmental destruction. Banned from the canyon where they spent their childhood, they are forced to follow the letter of the law or risk harsher punishment.

Ten years later, just as Howell is on the precipice of an “ordinary” adult life at last, chaos descends. The judge overseeing Howell’s case goes missing (in the very canyon where the original crime took place), and Howell's first love reappears. Unable to wait any longer for their future to begin, Howell decides to take fate into their own hands.

A luminous, gorgeously written novel about the radical grace of the natural world and navigating love on a burning planet, Sublimity Canyon asks how we forgive ourselves and each other for the damage we cause.