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R.J. Striegel

Goodreads Author

Genre

Historical Fiction

Influences

Willa Cather, Cormac McCarthy, Larry McMurtry, Louise Erdrich, N. Scot ...more

Member Since

March 2025

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His debut novel, Land Shadows, received the Eric Hoffer Da Vinci Eye Award and was named First Runner-Up for Historical Fiction in the Eric Hoffer Awards.

Ron (R.J.) Striegel grew up in New Mexico after moving to Albuquerque from Oklahoma in the early 1960s. A member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, whose tribal lands are located in Oklahoma, he spent his childhood between Albuquerque and Taos, developing a lifelong connection to the landscapes, histories, and cultural intersections of the American Southwest.

After living for many years in Colorado, R.J. returned to New Mexico to accept a faculty position at San Juan College in Farmington, where he teaches primarily Diné and Latino/a pre-service teachers in the college’s Teacher Education pr His debut novel, Land Shadows, received the Eric Hoffer Da Vinci Eye Award and was named First Runner-Up for Historical Fiction in the Eric Hoffer Awards.

Ron (R.J.) Striegel grew up in New Mexico after moving to Albuquerque from Oklahoma in the early 1960s. A member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, whose tribal lands are located in Oklahoma, he spent his childhood between Albuquerque and Taos, developing a lifelong connection to the landscapes, histories, and cultural intersections of the American Southwest.

After living for many years in Colorado, R.J. returned to New Mexico to accept a faculty position at San Juan College in Farmington, where he teaches primarily Diné and Latino/a pre-service teachers in the college’s Teacher Education program adjacent to the Navajo Nation.

Although he grew up without a strong connection to his Potawatomi heritage, shaped in part by the lingering effects of the boarding school era within Native communities, R.J. later began reconnecting with his cultural background through regional Potawatomi gatherings and the revival of traditional Potawatomi silversmithing. His work received an Honorable Mention at the 2021 Heard Museum Indian Arts Market competition.

R.J. holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Regis University and a master’s degree in education specializing in Teaching and Learning Theory from Capella University. While his professional writing background is rooted in academic work, his lifelong interest in the overlooked histories of the American West inspired his debut novel, Land Shadows.

Influenced by both the mythology of the American frontier and later historical research into land dispossession in New Mexico and southern Colorado, R.J.’s fiction explores themes of cultural erasure, identity, displacement, corruption, and survival. His work seeks to illuminate the often-forgotten experiences of Indigenous, Latino/a, immigrant, and settler communities whose lives shaped the American West beyond its popular myths.

Awards and Recognition for Land Shadows

• Winner, Eric Hoffer Da Vinci Eye Award
• First Runner-Up, Eric Hoffer Historical Fiction Award
• Finalist, Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award
• Shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize
• Winner, Maxy Award for Historical Fiction
• Named to Shelf Unbound’s Top 100 Notable Indie Books
• Kirkus Reviews “Get It” Recommendation
• Praised by BookLife/Publishers Weekly ...more

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R.J. Striegel’s books

Average rating: 4.0 · 10 ratings · 5 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

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R.J. Striegel shared a quote “I write about the American West not as mythology, but as lived history shaped by memory, displacement, survival, and silence.” R.J. Striegel
May 21, 2026 08:17AM · like · more quotes by R.J. Striegel · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Land Shadows by R.J. Striegel. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Land Shadows by R.J. Striegel <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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“A compelling appraisal of cultural heritage, belonging, and identity.” —BookLife Review (Publishers Weekly) Land Shadows earned high marks across all BookLife review categories, including an A- overall, and is featured in the June 2025 BookLife catal ...more
May 24, 2025 10:39AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Land Shadows by R.J. Striegel. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Land Shadows by R.J. Striegel <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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“I write about the American West not as mythology, but as lived history shaped by memory, displacement, survival, and silence.”
― R.J. Striegel, Land Shadows

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