"Still moments like a foggy morning in the country feel like a knife’s edge. Sometimes the fog stays for days, and that is a long time to feel swallowed."
Read MoreLisa Laughlin
Writing about the Inland Northwest
Managing Editor | Copy Writer
M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction
My work
Literary Essays
I write about the West. My essays have been published in Orion's "Place Where You Live" section, River Teeth, Flyway, High Desert Journal, Hippocampus Magazine, Belmont Story Review, Sweet: A Literary Confection, and elsewhere.
Out There Articles
I've written over 80 articles for Out There Outdoors magazine, an Inland Northwest outdoor recreation magazine. I have been the Managing Editor here since 2023. https://issuu.com/snyderzzz
Copy Writing
I work with DOMA Coffee Roasting Company's marketing team and artists to tell stories around coffee that end up on coffee bags, newsletters, blog posts, social media and more. https://www.domacoffee.com/
ABOUT
I'm a writer, editor, and mother, and pour my heart into each of those roles. My kids are young and my life is busy. I work as the managing editor of a quarterly print magazine and freelance in marketing. I love the literary, creative, and outdoors communities that I'm a part of in the Spokane region.
I am an avid trail runner and have only drawn blood one time so far while running. (I sprain my ankle more often.) I also enjoy backpacking in the Cascades and paddle boarding on our local lakes.
I grew up on a third-generation dryland wheat farm in central Washington state. I earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from EWU. My chapbook of flash essays, "Kindling," was published in 2017 by Sweet: A Literary Confection.
My creative writing centers on dryland wheat farming, wildfires, place, loss, and more. In June 2025 I was selected for the Orion's Environmental Writer's Workshop in Rhinebeck, NY. I have been an editor at three print magazines.
I am an avid trail runner and have only drawn blood one time so far while running. (I sprain my ankle more often.) I also enjoy backpacking in the Cascades and paddle boarding on our local lakes.
I grew up on a third-generation dryland wheat farm in central Washington state. I earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from EWU. My chapbook of flash essays, "Kindling," was published in 2017 by Sweet: A Literary Confection.
My creative writing centers on dryland wheat farming, wildfires, place, loss, and more. In June 2025 I was selected for the Orion's Environmental Writer's Workshop in Rhinebeck, NY. I have been an editor at three print magazines.
Featured Articles & Essays
I was invited to answer this question alongside other western writers. // Published by High Desert Journal
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A look at conservation issues of the Spokane River, weaving research, interviews and my first time whitewater rafting. // Published in Out There Outdoors magazine
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My Editor's Letter examining the impact of acknowledging others on the trail // Published in Out There Outdoors magazine
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An excerpt from my print collection, "Kindling," this flash essay examines the ways we try to claim a place // Published by Sweet Publications
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My Editor's Letter examining whether the community of endurance sports are worth the risk // Published in Out There Outdoors magazine
Read MoreBOOKS
I won the Sweet Flash Nonfiction Contest in 2017 and had a limited run of hand-stitched chapbooks made. The title essay, "Kindling," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
https://sweetlit.com/issue-10-1/essay-lisa-laughlin/
From the foreward:
"Laughlin's work in these essays covers ground related to loss, to the beauty and bare truth of it, and to how our sense of place accomodates that beauty and bare truth. All three of these selections reflect on the dryland wheat farm of Laughlin's youth, its austerity and dangers, and her own desire to hold it, to keep this home close, while acknowledging that impossibility. With language as stark as the land itself, and in the presence of a writer who meditates and reflects and discovers, we get an opening — a consciousness — that invites us to meditate and reflect and discover alongside, that sketches this place in the small, meaningful strokes of the short form." —K.C. Wolfe, Co-Founding Editor
https://sweetlit.com/issue-10-1/essay-lisa-laughlin/
From the foreward:
"Laughlin's work in these essays covers ground related to loss, to the beauty and bare truth of it, and to how our sense of place accomodates that beauty and bare truth. All three of these selections reflect on the dryland wheat farm of Laughlin's youth, its austerity and dangers, and her own desire to hold it, to keep this home close, while acknowledging that impossibility. With language as stark as the land itself, and in the presence of a writer who meditates and reflects and discovers, we get an opening — a consciousness — that invites us to meditate and reflect and discover alongside, that sketches this place in the small, meaningful strokes of the short form." —K.C. Wolfe, Co-Founding Editor
SUBSTACK
"The fact that we planted a garden in the fire strip said a lot about our relationship to the threat of fire: it was the new normal in the west."
Read More"I feel the ever-present tension of loving and leaving places, of trying to straddle two worlds: nature and concrete, republicans and democrats, agriculture and academic culture."
Read More"I sip the drink, and sit with him, and say, 'Over my dead body will AI write my grandmother’s obituary.'"
Read MoreMore of Lisa's Writing
Literary Works
"A Science and an Art" | Flyway Journal of Writing and Environment | contest finalist | Spring 2018 https://flywayjournal.org/non-fiction/a-science-and-an-art/
"Ephrata, WA" | Orion Magazine's "Place Where You Live" Section | May 2015 https://orionmagazine.org/article/ephrata-washington/
"Kindling" | Sweet Literary Magazine | Nominated for a Pushcart Prize | Sept. 2017 https://sweetlit.com/issue-10-1/essay-lisa-laughlin/
"Body and Field" | High Desert Journal | Oct. 2017 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eba1f61b311ac0566822d5c/t/5f98fe83a7b60175a59e363f/1603862149755/Lisa+Laughlin%2C+Body+and+Field+_+highdesertjournal.pdf
"A Sort of Trespass" | Sweet: A Literary Confection | Issue 9.1 https://sweetlit.com/issue-9-1/essay-lisa-laughlin/
"Listen to the Silence" | Belmont Story Review | Issue No. 1 https://issuu.com/belmontstoryreview/docs/bsrtext/2?ff&experiment=previewReaderTestMode,new-bff-links-purchased,new-bff-overlay
"An Absence of Yellow" | River Teeth's Beautiful Things | a micro essay | Nov. 2016 https://riverteethjournal.com/beautiful-things/an-absence-of-yellow/
"Ice Breaker" | Hippocampus Magazine | Mar. 2016 https://hippocampusmagazine.com/2016/03/ice-breaker-by-lisa-laughlin/
Selected Editor's Letters for Out There Outdoors
"A Crash Lesson in Community" | Fall 2025 https://outthereoutdoors.com/endurance-sports-community-crash-lesson/
"The Five-Second Trail Wave" | Summer 2025 https://outthereoutdoors.com/the-five-second-trail-wave/
"Find Your Flow" | Nov/Dec 2025 https://outthereoutdoors.com/find-your-flow/
"Learning the Lexicon of the Places We Love" | July/Aug 2024 https://outthereoutdoors.com/learning-the-lexicon-of-the-places-we-love/
"An Enlightening Backcountry Encounter" | May/June 2024 https://outthereoutdoors.com/an-enlightening-backcountry-encounter/
"A Case for Reading the Weather" | March/Apr 2024 https://outthereoutdoors.com/a-case-for-reading-the-weather/
"Learning on the Trail" | July/Aug 2023 https://outthereoutdoors.com/learning-on-the-trail/
"Jumping into Summer" | May/ June 2023 https://outthereoutdoors.com/jumping-in-to-summer/
"Illumination for the Long Run" | March/Apr 2023 https://outthereoutdoors.com/illumination-for-the-long-run/
Selected Out There Outdoors Articles
"PFAS Chemicals Discovered in the Spokane River" | Fall 2025 https://outthereoutdoors.com/pfas-contamination-in-the-spokane-river/
"Reflections on a River" | May 2024 https://outthereoutdoors.com/reflections-on-a-river/
Book Review: "World of Wonders" | Mar/April 2024 https://outthereoutdoors.com/world-of-wonders-by-aimee-nezhukumatathil/
"Backcountry Biking for All" | An experience of north Idaho's Hiawatha Trail | Aug/Sept 2023 https://outthereoutdoors.com/backcountry-biking-for-all/
"Exploring the Hanford Reach National Monument" | Oct/Nov 2020 https://outthereoutdoors.com/exploring-the-hanford-reach-national-monument/
"Proof of Life: From Brain Tumor to 50k" | Based on an interview with a trail runner | Jan/Feb 2018 https://outthereoutdoors.com/proof-of-life-from-brain-tumor-to-50k/
"Inland NW Trail Runs Worth Traveling For" | May/June 2018 https://outthereoutdoors.com/trail-runs-worth-traveling-for/
"Barefooting the Spokane: The Short-Lived, Spokane River Water Ski Craze" | July 2018 https://outthereoutdoors.com/barefooting-the-spokane-the-short-lived-spokane-river-water-ski-craze/
"5 Hikes in Washington Wine Country" | Oct/Nov 2018 https://outthereoutdoors.com/5-hikes-in-washington-wine-country/
Find the full collection of my articles here: https://outthereoutdoors.com/?s=lisa+laughlin
Articles and Profiles for DOMA Coffee
Start with Coffee: Seaweed Farmer: https://www.domacoffee.com/pages/seaweed-farmer
Start With Coffee: Therapeutic Sailing: https://www.domacoffee.com/pages/dogsmile-adventures
Start With Coffee: Fly Fisher Guide: https://www.domacoffee.com/pages/fly-fishing-guide
Limited Oxygen Coffee Processing: https://www.domacoffee.com/blogs/blog/limited-oxygen-processing
The Dukunde Kawa Cooperative: https://www.domacoffee.com/pages/dukunde-kawa-co-op
Coffee Copy
I work with artists to tell stories, and they end up on craft coffee labels. I connected with Montana artist Coila Evans for this project. Here's my words on back of this can:
"This heirloom variety from Ethiopia is a washed-process coffee with red apple acidity and floral aromas, extra refreshing as an iced brew. It's clean and sweet, like the air on an open prairie as a long summer day wanes to night.
With an homage to the high plains of Montana, artist Coila Evans' lone lady longhorn is meant to evoke the enduring, independent spirit of the West. Let this coffee inspire you to explore the liminal, like where the horizon meets the sky, and strike a balance between peace and purpose."
https://www.domacoffee.com/
"This heirloom variety from Ethiopia is a washed-process coffee with red apple acidity and floral aromas, extra refreshing as an iced brew. It's clean and sweet, like the air on an open prairie as a long summer day wanes to night.
With an homage to the high plains of Montana, artist Coila Evans' lone lady longhorn is meant to evoke the enduring, independent spirit of the West. Let this coffee inspire you to explore the liminal, like where the horizon meets the sky, and strike a balance between peace and purpose."
https://www.domacoffee.com/
Contact
- Spokane, Washington, United States
I'm interested in freelance writing and editing projects, or just chatting about writing and good books. Get in touch!