Announcing the recipient of the 2021 Pattie Layser Greater Yellowstone Creative Writing & Journalism Fellowship

Hannah Habermann of Jackson is the recipient of the Wyoming Arts Council’s 2021 Pattie Layser Greater Yellowstone Creative Writing & Journalism Fellowship.

Honorable mentions went to Joseph Bullington of Helena, MT, Corrie Williamson of West Yellowstone, Mont., and John Clayton of Red Lodge, Mont.

The Pattie Layser Greater Yellowstone Creative Writing & Journalism Fellowship is made possible through generous funding from The Pattie and Earle Layser Memorial Fund. This annual prestigious fellowship of $3,500 is awarded to a creative writer (poetry, fiction, nonfiction), or those in the field of journalism (writer, photojournalist, videographer, documentary filmmaker, online or print media) who demonstrate serious inquiry and dedication to the Greater Yellowstone region through their work. Over the next year, Habermann will create or complete a relevant publishable or produced work and have the opportunity for a housing residency in the greater Yellowstone region. 

Habermann is a writer, educator and activist focused on the social and environmental conflicts playing out in a rapidly-changing American West. She is honored to receive the Pattie Layser Fellowship and is looking forward to using the grant to explore stories focused on a just energy transition and Indigenous conservation efforts in Wyoming.

She is the co-creator and producer of the podcast “Yonder Lies: Unpacking the Myths of Jackson Hole,” a collaboration with KHOL 89.1, the Jackson Hole Historical Society, and the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative. “Yonder Lies” has explored issues of wildlife management, social justice, and the housing crisis in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Habermann is currently the Community Outreach and Communications Manager for the Jackson Hole Climate Action Collective, and also works as a climbing and hiking instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School. In 2020, she was the communications manager for the historic Grey Bull for Congress campaign. She has written for the “Jackson Hole News & Guide” and holds a degree in Environmental Studies and Creative Writing from Middlebury College.

The jurors this year were Susan Marsh and Christine Peterson. Susan lives in Jackson, WY with degrees in geology and landscape architecture and a lifelong interest in creative writing, she has combined her interests into a body of work that explores the relationship of humans to the wild. Her work has appeared in journals that include “Orion,” “North American Review,” and “Fourth Genre,” and in many anthologies. Her books include the award-winning novel “War Creek” and non-fiction books, “A Hunger for High Country,” “Cache Creek: A Trailside Guide to Jackson Hole’s Backyard Wilderness,” and “Saving Wyoming’s Hoback,” winner of the Wallace Stegner Prize in Environmental Humanities. She writes a column “Back to Nature” for “Mountain Journal.”

Christine Peterson has covered wildlife, the environment and outdoor recreation in Wyoming and across the West for more than a decade, first at the Casper Star-Tribune”then as a freelance journalist. She has since written about grizzly bears, wolves, elk and insects for “National Geographic,” water law and persistence hunting for “Outdoor Life” and chronic wasting disease and landlocked public land for “High Country News.” Her byline has also appeared in “The Guardian,” “Bugle” and the “Cool Green Science” web magazine. She is a regular contributor to the “Casper Star-Tribune” and “Wyofile” and is a contributing writer for “Outdoor Life.” She's the vice president of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and has won numerous regional and national awards. When she's not reporting or writing from her home in Laramie, she's wandering the West with her husband, four-year-old daughter and greying yellow Labrador.

For more information about the fellowship visit the Arts Council websitewyomingartscouncil.org or call 307-274-6673

Caption: The recipient of the 2021 Pattie Layser Greater Yellowstone Creative Writing & Journalism Fellowship, Hannah Habermann.