San Juan College faculty member Ron (R.J.) Striegel is earning national attention for his award-winning historical novel Land Shadows.
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A literary work that explores the Highland Clearances, Indigenous displacement and political corruption in the American West.
Striegel, who teaches in the Teacher Education program, recently received multiple prestigious literary honors for the novel.
The novel has been recognized by several national literary organizations and independent publishing awards programs, including the Eric Hoffer Awards, one of the largest and most respected competitions for independently published books in the United States.
Thousands of books are evaluated each year across multiple categories, making recognition in several divisions especially rare.
Land Shadows Receives Multiple National Book Awards
Recent honors for Land Shadows include:
- Winner of the Eric Hoffer Da Vinci Eye Award
- Finalist for the Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award for debut authors
- Shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize
- Runner-Up in Historical Fiction for the Eric Hoffer Awards
- Winner of the Maxy Award for Historical Fiction
- Named one of Shelf Unbound’s Top 100 Notable Indie Books
- Recipient of a Kirkus Reviews “Get It” Recommendation
The novel also received praise from BookLife by Publishers Weekly, further solidifying its reputation within the independent publishing community.
Award-Winning Novel Brings Western History to Life
Set during the era of the Maxwell Land Grant in the American West, Land Shadows follows Scottish immigrant Murdoch McNeil as he becomes caught in a world shaped by displacement, land fraud, violence and political corruption.
The story draws powerful connections between the Highland Clearances in Scotland and the forced displacement of Indigenous and Hispano communities throughout New Mexico and the broader Southwest. Through historical fiction, the novel explores themes of cultural erasure, identity, survival and resilience.
“Land Shadows grew out of a desire to explore the human cost of displacement and the stories often left out of traditional Western history,” Striegel said. “Living and teaching in the Southwest has deeply shaped how I think about history, memory and cultural survival.”
In addition to being an award-winning author, Striegel is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and works closely with Diné and Latino/a pre-service teachers at San Juan College.
Learn More About Land Shadows
The success of Land Shadows also highlights the growing impact of independent publishing and regional storytelling in national literary conversations. The novel was published through OIN Publishing, an independent press founded by Striegel as a division of Open Instructional Narratives LLC.
Learn more about Land Shadows, upcoming events or OIN Publishing.
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