Storytelling in the American West
Wyoming writer Emilene Ostlind crafts narratives of communities, place, and human connections to landscapes in the American West.
Emilene’s writing explores the linkages between humans and the landscapes where we dwell, work, and play as part of an ongoing quest to understand how to live well on this planet.
She lives in Wyoming, and much of her writing focuses on the surrounding high deserts, sagebrush steppe, and Rocky Mountains.
Select Projects
Wild Migrations
Atlas of Wyoming’s Ungulates
“At 4 a.m. on an early May morning, a female mule deer left her winter range headed north.”
Emilene served as text editor for this atlas, a project of the Wyoming Migration Initiative and partners. She also contributed essays to open each of the five chapters.
A New Vision for Yellowstone
An Ecosystem Defined by Migration
“Nearly half a century after adopting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem concept, it is time again to transform our thinking about this place.”
Emilene contributed the central essay to Joe Riis‘s photo book showcasing the extraordinary migrations of mule deer, elk, pronghorn, and other species in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Western Confluence
Natural Resource Science and Management in the West
“This magazine explores the western United States’ most confounding natural resource issues and seeks realistic, interdisciplinary solutions.”
Emilene was founding editor of Western Confluence magazine, a publication of the Ruckelshaus Institute at the University of Wyoming. She produced a dozen issues over the course of a decade.
About
Emilene has worked as a photographic coordinator at National Geographic magazine, an editorial fellow at High Country News, a freelance journalist, text editor for the Wyoming Migration Initiative, and founding editor of Western Confluence magazine.
She holds a master’s of fine arts in creative nonfiction writing and environment and natural resources from the University of Wyoming.
Emilene Ostlind 