Earthen: Stories

Twenty new stories from Katherine Koller are collected in Earthen, published by Great Plains Press, upcoming in May 2026.

The characters in the short stories of Earthen are all in need of guidance: mothers, widows and wives, grandmas and grandpas, teachers, lovers, and the young. They find messages in the earth and rock beneath their feet, the mountains and atmosphere above, or the creatures surrounding them: birds and animals, plants and trees. The natural world insists on a relationship with both characters and readers of Earthen, in stories ranging from realism to fable to speculative fiction.

Edgily tender, Earthen lets readers in on deep conversations

among living beings, some human and some not. Women

team up with one another and with females of different

species to form clever alliances. A beautiful, provocative read.

-Rona Altrows, winner of the 2025 Prairie Grindstone Prize

In writing as clear as water and fresh as apples––two motifs threaded through these stories––Katherine Koller’s lyrical collection Earthen takes us into the lives of ordinary people – poignant family relationships; longings, loves, betrayals, tragedies. These intimate stories unfold in a world teeming with beauty, death and fear: lush gardens, harvests, ‘sun-green forests’, avalanches, toxic tailings ponds.—Lynn Hutchinson Lee, author of Nightshade

To Preorder, ask your favorite book store or visit the Earthen: Stories page on the Great Plains Press site.

The Edmonton launch party for Earthen: Stories by Katherine Koller is Thursday, May 14, 2026, at 7:30, Belgravia Community League, with Audreys Books.