Amy Allgeyer

Amy Allgeyer is a writer and architect whose first novel, Dig Too Deep, combines a young person’s investigation with environmental and community questions. Liberty Briscoe leaves Washington, DC, for her grandmother’s Kentucky home after her mother faces imprisonment following a political protest. In Ebbottsville, Liberty finds unemployment, damaged mountains, illness, and orange tap water that local officials still describe as safe. Her search for evidence brings her into conflict with powerful interests connected to coal mining and forces her to consider whether justice can be pursued without repeating her mother’s choices. Albert Whitman published Dig Too Deep for teenage readers and identifies Allgeyer as a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature and the Nevada Mentor Program for Children’s Writing. The novel was also recognized as a notable book by the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award. Allgeyer grounds the suspense in family loyalty and Appalachian place, allowing Liberty’s concern for her grandmother to drive a wider inquiry into public health, extraction, and civic responsibility.