05/06/2026
The Ellen Meloy Fund for Desert Writers has chosen Morgan Sjogren as the recipient of the twenty-second annual Desert Writers Award. A grant of $5,000 will support work on her book, provisionally titled “Desert Maverick.”
Sjogren, a Riverside, California–born writer, arrived at Glen Canyon nine years ago and stayed. She now lives near the headwaters of a Glen Canyon tributary and spends her winters wandering the Sonoran and Mojave deserts.
Her 2023 book, “Path of Light: A Walk Through Colliding Legacies of Glen Canyon,” retraces early twentieth century archaeological expeditions through Glen Canyon and what is today Bears Ears National Monument. “Path of Light” won the Utah Book Award in 2025.
Her current project, “Desert Maverick,” focuses on the career of science pioneer Ann Axtell Morris, who worked alongside her husband, archaeologist Earl Morris, but received little recognition for her contributions. As Sjogren writes, Morris “recorded cultural sites in the Southwest with her paintbrush, developing groundbreaking methods of pictorial documentation still used today,” and “challenged the ethics of archaeological practices through reverence for indigenous peoples.”
In addition to “Desert Maverick,” Sjogren is also working on a new book, “Riverside,” a work of creative nonfiction that “explores what it means to be a citizen of the Colorado River watershed while living with uncertainty in dry times.”
Upon receiving the award, Sjogren reflected: “During long stretches of desert solitude I have turned to books, including Ellen Meloy’s, for companionship… I cherish our shared understanding that we are part of the desert, not separate.”
She continued: “I am beyond grateful for the support of the Ellen Meloy Foundation… this award reminds me to keep going, and to always trust my instincts in the desert — even if that call is to forge ever deeper to listen to the stories of friendly ghosts.”
In addition to the award winner, the Meloy board named two 2026 Runners-Up: Eleanor Whitney of Yucca Flats, California, for “Total Loss”; and Ceal Klingler of Bishop, California, for “How We Live Together.”
