Troy Allan
Author
Troy’s new book,
In the Shadows
Available Soon!
Read an excerpt from In the Shadows
Troy Allan
Troy Allan is a Chaplain, Essayist, Professor, and Extension faculty member who believes that art, nature, and theology are deeply connected. His writing often explores the overlooked corners of daily life—travel, solitude, resilience, family—and the ways they shape the human spirit.
After twenty years of active-duty military service, Troy retired in 2021 and returned to his roots in rural Utah. Today, he works with Utah State University Extension, leading initiatives in rural mental health, community wellness, and veteran support.
Troy holds graduate and doctoral degrees in Pastoral Counseling, Comparative Theology, and the Humanities, along with an MFA in Creative Writing from Regis University in Denver. He and his wife of thirty years, along with their two children, live on a small ranch in Koosharem, Utah, where they raise alpacas, Icelandic sheep, and horses. When he isn’t writing, teaching, or traveling, Troy can often be found under open skies, walking trails, and seeking the quiet signs that shape life.
Troy’s new book, In the Shadows: Essays on Seeing, invites readers into the quiet spaces between faith, doubt, loss, and wonder. With the attentive eye of a chaplain and the heart of an artist, Troy Allan offers meditations on how we see the world—and how the world, in turn, shapes us. These essays remind us that even in darkness, there is light waiting to be found.
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WORKS BY TROY ALLAN
In the Shadows
Kathryn Winograd, This Visible Speaking: Catching Light Through the Camera’s Lens (2025 Eric Hoffer Award) –
How often do we have a chance to see into the inner world of faith through those ordained who comfort us when we are most frail? Who offer instruction when we are most blind? Tether us when we flail between the world of the infinite spirit and the corporeal world in all its raggedness? Troy D Allan, Chaplain, Afghanistan and Iraqi vet, theologian, devoted husband and father, gives us this gift of sight through his debut essay collection, “In the Shadows: Essays on Seeing.” Allan is not afraid to lift the veil as he grapples with the ever so commonplace suffering of this world. These beautiful essays deftly weave together the ordinary moments of his life—a family outing to Burger King or the nearby donut shop—with the unexpected moments—a street woman with a crying infant who tosses the orange he gives her into the garbage, the baby rattle snake that he and his brother as children wantonly killed— that lead Allan into meditations on faith and its vagaries. Happily for us, Allan is a man of letters and he shares his struggles through the gravitas and splendor of literary lights. “Finding God is not a graceful journey,” Troy D Allan warns us, and, for that human lack of grace he offers us, we are thankful.