I write about sex, death, and spirits. Currently seeking representation for my second memoir, Shaman— a story of surviving multiple death initiations and being courted by shamanic practice, as a person without clear spiritual lineage, in a modern world. The book explores the historical destruction of shamanic lineages around the world and the concept of “emergent shamanism,” in which the land spirits and ancestors are always identifying and training those who are meant to live in spiritual service—whether or not initiates understand what is happening, survive the initiations, or even want the job—in an attempt to rebuild the bridge between the human and more-than-human worlds, and to foster right relationships in a world that has forgotten so much.
Hi! I’m Katherine E. Standefer—the author of Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving A Life (Little, Brown Spark 2020).
Anthologized in The Best American Essays 2016 and named “notable” in BAE 2017, 2019, and 2020.
Winner of the Iowa Review Award in Nonfiction (2015).
Writing backed by more than $100,000 in patronage since 2014.
MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Arizona (2014) and BAs in Sociology and Fiction Writing from The Colorado College (2007)
Publication in The Los Angeles Times, The High Country News, The Rumpus, New England Review, Fugue, Cutbank, Camas and many other literary journals, as well as the anthologies Beautiful Flesh: A Body of Essays (ed. Stephanie G’Schwind) and How We Speak to One Another: An Essay Daily Reader (ed. Ander Monson and Craig Reinbold).
Originally from Chicagoland, but have spent my adulthood in Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Currently living in a cabin in Kelly, Wyoming.
I sing on Monday nights at the Jackson Hole Hootenanny and otherwise enjoy downhill skiing, trail running, powerlifting, and soaking in hot springs in my spare time.
Read my most recent work over on Substack— The Wild & Holy Moment. Learn about my shamanic work here.
Work with Me
I work intensively with just a handful of writers at any given time—people whose work genuinely compels and thrills me, and whose spiritual journey is inextricable from their writing life.
As a traditionally published and critically acclaimed memoirist, I combine sharp craft instruction and publishing industry savvy with a soul-led pedagogy and concrete spiritual tools—building nonfiction writers’ careers while accompanying them through the underworld process of becoming who their soul intends them to be.
I’ve spent more than a decade working with writers telling stories of trauma. I’ve learned that the events that shatter us comprise only the first half of our initiations. Those of us born as writers must alchemize these events—through both the grit of storytelling on the page and through more embodied somatic and spiritual work—in order to transform them into the medicine our culture needs.
I help writers recognize, accept, and rise to the spiritual invitations of their writing process.
My clients confront nervous system activation, learn tools for embodiment, assess their energetics, face difficult truths about themselves, connect with spirit guides, move blocks somatically, clear ancestral curses, persevere through murky stretches of disorientation, and develop a mature relationship to topics like sex, death, and the spirit world despite society’s deep aversions.
My clients have also sold their books for $500k+, nabbed top agents, gotten into the best MFA programs, won elite contests, and gained entry into exclusive workshops. They’ve gone from completely stuck, to birthing whole books over the course of a couple years.
Please note: I don’t teach beginner-level writing, mentor fiction projects, or edit one-off projects except from vetted past clients.
Apply to work with me
I’m a Patreon artist.
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