Amy Frykholm is an award-winning writer, scholar, and journalist. As a senior editor for The Christian Century magazine, she hosts the podcast In Search Of. After receiving her PhD from Duke University, she went on to write five books of nonfiction which cover the territory of American religion from apocalyptists to saints, including Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America, Julian of Norwich: A Contemplative Biography, and most recently Wild Woman: A Footnote, The Desert, and My Quest for An Elusive Saint.
Relationships between body, spirit, and land pervade Amy's writing and cross genre boundaries between nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. Her debut poetry chapbook The Hour of Light encounters stories of exile and desire in ancient sources and searches for resonances that cut against habitual interpretations.
High Hawk
by Amy Frykholm
University of Iowa Press
PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel 2025, Longlist
It’s 1970, and on the Windy Creek Reservation in South Dakota, amidst the rise of AIM in neighboring Pine Ridge, a baby boy appears nestled in a box of Styrofoam peanuts on the doorstep of St. Rose Catholic Church. His appearance disrupts the predictable, lonely life of longtime reservation priest Father Joe Kreitzer. The child, whom they name Bear, finds refuge under the care of Father Joe’s closest friend and ally, Alice Nighthawk.
Thirteen years pass without event, when Alice’s older son, Albert, is mysteriously murdered outside a bar in Rapid City, and Bear is accused of attempting to kill the only person who knows what happened that night. At the same time, Father Joe receives a letter from a person from his past, the only woman who made him question the path of priesthood. She has reached out to Father Joe as one of the few who might help her.
To keep Bear’s case from federal prosecution, Father Joe and Alice begin a search for Bear’s long-lost mother. But their journey unearths more than they bargained for, plunging Father Joe into a labyrinth of secrets and revelations. He is forced not only to confront the choices he’s made and the secrets he keeps, but also to see the truth of the lives of the people around him.
High Hawk is a rich tapestry of love and history, delving into the delicate intricacies of the past and the redemptive power of second chances. Through evocative prose, the lives of those on the fringes of American culture come alive, navigating adversity and forging
connections against all odds.