Annie Lampman
Torrey House Press: 2026
It’s wildfire season on the Palouse, and ornithology professor Ava Estmund suddenly finds herself stunned by the deaths of both her star student and her estranged father. Ezra Kittredge works the fire line alongside other convicts. And eleven-year-old Greer Groff witnesses something no one should ever have to see. All three flee.
The trio of compelling characters, linked by their losses, feels the heat and flies away. Two, separately but simultaneously, to a coastal community in Ecuador, chasing freedom and healing or, at the very least, a time and place to grieve. Another, into the wilds of western Idaho, where wit and skill—along with two llamas and a dog—aid in survival.
“Pay attention to everything nature says,” a neighborly father figure tells the girl before she splits. “You’ve got to listen to nature if you want to know anything about yourself or this earth—breathing its air, drinking its water, eating its plants and its creatures. Nothing else can teach you what you need to know about real things.”
Annie Lampman, associate professor of creative writing at Washington State University Honors College, deftly braids the journeys of each escapee into a riveting narrative of trauma, redemption, and chosen family. Each protagonist is a broken bird who must face their past—and themselves—in the wake of their pain.
Their carefully crafted story is as timely as it is timeless, offering a commentary on the climate crisis as well as the current state of higher education while examining the human condition. Native American mythology—specifically surrounding the revered Raven, creator and cunning trickster—threads through the entire tale. And Lampman’s deliciously lilting language ignites each page, suffused with bits and pieces of Pacific Northwest history and vivid description of remote regional landscapes.