I’m delighted to share that my novel Elita, which came out January 15th, has garnered some fantastic reviews! (Read full reviews by clicking the bolded links below.)

In a starred review, Kirkus writes that Elita is “Immensely satisfying as both a mystery and as an unblinkered look at working motherhood.”

The Washington Post reviews Elita as a “slow-burning mystery” and also a “potent character study.”

The Seattle Times called Elita a “dark and gripping mystery.”

Shelf Awareness writes that Elita is “lustrous,” “evocative,” and “insightful.”

Seattle Magazine says Elita is “a tightly-written page turner.”

***

With true joy, I’m happy to share that my fourth short story collection, Outer Stars, has won the 2025 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction and will be published by the University of North Texas in the autumn of 2025. The seven stories in Outer Stars float between the real and the speculative, exploring themes of motherhood, aging, grief, and the intricate connection between our bodies and our landscapes. I’m thrilled that it will be in readers’ hands soon!

***

My new story “Wind Phone,” has been published in Conjunctions this week. It’s a speculative piece about motherhood, marriage, grief, and place. I’m happy to share it with readers in full here.

***

Many thanks to PNW writer Michael McGregor for posting a bit about my latest story, “Clean Breaks,” published in The Sun’s August issue, and Elita on his blog Writing the Northwest.

Michael’s own forthcoming novel, The Last Grand Tour, will be published in January of 2025. Michael also heads up the new Cascadia Writers in Conversation series, which will host Debra Magpie Earling on Sept. 12th in Edmonds, WA. The first interview, which was with Spokane author Sharma Shields, was an intimate and insightful discussion of influence, craft, and the reception of one’s work after publication. I highly recommend this series!

***

Are you part of a bookclub? I’d love to share Elita, my forthcoming novel, with your group of readers. I’m pre-booking bookclub events, either in-person (if you’re in the Seattle area) or via Zoom, and can provide a reader’s guide to Elita ahead of your reading. Please contact me through this website if you’d like to schedule a bookclub visit with me (or just receive the novel’s reader’s guide) after January 2025. And here’s the link to pre-order the novel.

***

I have a new story out the August 2024 issue of a dream publication, The Sun. “Clean Breaks” is a story about motherhood, grief, failure, and acceptance. I’m so honored to have it included in a magazine I’ve loved as a reader. If you’re interested in reading, here’s a link.

***

I’m thrilled to have my debut novel, Elita, coming out with TriQuarterly Press (an imprint of Northwestern University Press) in the winter of 2025. Unfolding during the moody Pacific Northwest winter of 1951, Elita follows Bernadette Baston, scholar of child development and language acquisition, as she travels to a remote island penitentiary to consult on a curious case: Two guards have discovered an adolescent girl living—and surviving—alone in the cold woods. The guards—indeed, all of her captors—describe the girl as animal-like. She came out of nowhere, they say, suddenly, growling and wild-eyed. But why? And who is the girl? Has she run away or been left to her fate? And how long has she been on the island? There are few answers—but many people who know more than they are disclosing. According to the official reports, the girl doesn’t speak. Whom does her silence protect? The prison warden, court-appointed guardian, and police detective embroil Bernadette in resolving a secret that this island community has long held, and her investment in the girl’s case soon becomes less scholarly than personal. As a mother, a wife, and a woman bound by the mid-20th century expectations for women, Bernadette strategizes to retain the fragile control she has over her own freedom, identity, and future, which becomes inextricably tied to solving Atalanta’s case. Preorder Elita here.

***

I have a new story— “Outer Stars”—forthcoming in this summer’s issue of the journal Prairie Schooner. Please check out your local bookseller for a copy or, better yet, subscribe to this fantastic journal: Prairie Schooner subscriptions.