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Jana Richman is the author of a collection of personal essays, Finding Stillness in a Noisy World; a memoir, Riding in the Shadows of Saints: A Woman’s Story of Motorcycling the Mormon Trail; two novels, The Ordinary Truth and The Last Cowgirl, which won the Willa Award for Contemporary Fiction and was runner up for the Utah Book Award.

Born and raised in Utah’s west desert, she writes about elements that threaten to destroy the essence of the west: overpopulation, consumption, rapidly dwindling water aquifers, stupidity, ignorance, arrogance, and greed. Jana also writes about the elements that might save us: passion, beauty, kindness, love, and a deep connection to place.

Jana has an MFA in creative writing and an MA in journalism from the University of Arizona. She currently lives in the irascible small town of Escalante, Utah, surrounded by the magnificent Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.