Who I Am

My name is Sam Koenen, and I’m a teacher, writer, and avid reader.

This is my personal blog, where I write about the joy and struggle of becoming human. For me, this happens primarily through reading, writing, and talking about books. So I write a lot about books and the reading life.

But I also believe that the routine demands of daily life are the very rhythms that bring meaning, purpose, and beauty to our lives.  I believe that life really happens in the ordinary and mundane.

So, in addition to books, I also write about gardens, family, food, and fishing–anything that helps me bring rhythmic order to the daily hurly-burly.

My goal is to write insightful content that helps you live a more fulfilled, beautiful life. If you’re wrestling to find contentment in the workaday world, then this blog is for you.  If you search for the good life in the pages of books old or new, then let me greet you as a fellow wayfarer.  May we bless each other as we travel down the same road.

I try to post three times a week. To make sure you don’t miss the latest posts, you can subscribe to free email newsletter.  Subscribers get free blog updates and other great stuff (like free books!).

You can also follow me through Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

What I Do

I have been teaching literature, rhetoric, and humanities at Petra Academy for more than a decade (beginning in 1999). This has been extremely challenging work—and incredibly rewarding. In these ten years, my vision of the world has been sharpened and fleshed out by complementary studies in literature, theology, and the craft of writing.

I live in Bozeman, Montana, in the heart of the gorgeous Gallatin Valley. In my free time I enjoy flyfishing on Montana’s beautiful rivers, hiking in the five mountain ranges near my house, playing chess with my son, reading to my daughters, and eating my wife’s delicious cooking.

You can contact me through email or find me on Facebook and Twitter.