Colleen O'Brien

Colleen O’Brien’s debut novel "Baited" is a whodunit mystery set in Glacier National Park the summer of the grizzly bear DNA study. A trail crew worker goes to roust her buddy and finds his tent shredded. The park service launches a search and rescue and uncovers a series of misdeeds and betrayals. Told from multiple points of view representing Glacier Park's eclectic east side community, Baited grapples with personal loss, the controversy surrounding grizzly bears and how to reconcile our love and affection for a person who has committed a reprehensible act.

Her writing has been published in the anthologies A Mile in Her Boots: Women Who Work in the Wild, Bright Bones: Contemporary Montana Writing, and A View Inside Glacier National Park: 100 Years, 100 Stories. Her short stories and essays have appeared in Montana Quarterly, Flathead Living, The Missoulian, Whitefish Review, Montana Outdoors, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Weddings, and on Timothy McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

Baited is her first novel. The manuscript was awarded the Michael K. Smith Fellowship at Porches Writing Retreat in Virginia. She is co-owner of several East Glacier, Montana businesses and lives with her family near Glacier Park.