because memory seeps

into the swallowing land

Karin Anderson portrays

places, issues, and humans of the

arid American West

About

I’ve lived here a long time. I’ve been paying attention. In the desert West, everyday lives play out in epic settings. It makes us all a little crazy, but we inherit a sense of grand story. I write to hope the story never ends.

Projects

Fiction and Nonfiction:

  • Before Us Like a Land of Dreams. Ancestral dead tell their stories, their own ways. https://www.torreyhouse.org/before-us-like-a-land-of-dreams

  • What Falls Away. Estranged for forty years after a “sinful” pregnancy, Cassandra Soelberg returns to her Utah hometown to care for her mother in the final stages of dementia — and to come to uncertain terms with family and community. https://www.torreyhouse.org/what-falls-away

  • Things I Didn’t Do (publishing 2025, Torrey House Press). Ryder Mikkelson grows up in Utah’s Book Cliffs region, profoundly identified with his family and rugged sense of place — except for long-buried questions about his origin.

  • Blossom as the Cliffrose: Mormon Legacies and the Beckonding Wild. Co-curated and edited with poet Danielle Beazer Dubrasky, this collection of esssays and poety — to environmental sensitivity and commitment to the land. Co-curated and edited with poet Danielle Beazer Dubrasky, this collection of esssays and poety draws from a pool of professional and nonprofessional writers: faithful, apostate, incidentally or intentionally aligned with Latter Day Saint history or culture. https://www.torreyhouse.org/blossom-as-the-cliffrose

  • Utah Lake Stories. A chapbook highlighting a remarkable range of love and experience in relation to one of the West’s largest natural bodies of water — acknowledging a history of environmental damage yet speaking for hope and recovery. Co-curated and edited with poet and essayist Amelia England. Clarence Dixon Taylor Award, 2023. https://www.torreyhouse.org/utah-lake-stories

Contact me through Torrey House Press https://www.torreyhouse.org/

Or I’m happy to respond at karin_ae@icloud.com

Contact