Anna Keesey

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“[Keesey's] uncanny historical imagination [...] takes the breath away.”

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Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl

“With its beautiful language, memorable characters, and compelling story, Little Century is sure to gain a wide and appreciative audience.”

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Ron Rash, author of Serena

“Here is a fine novel, written with grace… a frontier saga, a love story, and an epic of many small pleasures.”

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Joshua Ferris, author of And Then We Came to the End

“In this novel of stunning beauty, [...a]n incredible debut—and a writer to watch.”

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Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife

“Little Century‘s heroine, Esther Chambers, is the kind found in the best of classic literature: an innocent[...]whose essential goodness and loyalty shines through the savagery around her.”

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Kathleen Kent, author of The Heretic’s Daughter

“I read it at a gallop, and didn’t want it to end.”

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Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles

“Anna Keesey’s debut novel is historical fiction at its finest—precise and particular in detail, character, and setting, yet vast and epic in scope and theme. Little Century is a remarkable achievement.”

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Larry Watson, author of Montana, 1948

“[…]A confidently energetic tale of an 18-year-old orphan who leaves Chicago to eke out a new life for herself in Century, Ore., at the turn of the 20th century.”

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Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Dwindling resources, bribery, and corruption–issues as current as this morning’s newspaper–mix with optimism in Little Century, Anna Keesey’s briskly romantic, nontraditional western, set in central Oregon circa 1900.”

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Liza Nelson, O Magazine

“Keesey writes lyrically and examines the ferocity of frontier life with an unromantic and penetrating gaze.”

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Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“One of summer’s six ‘most exhilarating novels’”

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Vogue Magazine

Latest from the blog

Associated Writing Programs panel discussion: Purpose and the Practical in Historical Fiction

That March Madness you hear about in Boston this week is the annual conference of the Associate Writing Programs, the professional organization of imaginative writers and writing teachers, with 11,000 participants expected.  I’ll be there hoovering up inspiration and also moderating a dy-no-mite panel discussion on historical fiction with fellow purveyors Emily Barton (The Testament of Yves Gundron and Brookland), Zachary Lazar (Sway and Evening’s Empire), and Peter Ho Davies (The Welsh Girl, and more Best American and O.Henry prizes for short fiction than you can shake a stick at).  The panel takes place Friday morning at 9 am.  Hope to cross paths with some readers and friends and reader-friends!

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“This book surprised me”: a new review from Propeller Magazine

Little Century by Anna Keesey | Aisles | Propeller.

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Wild Arts Festival in Portland

Signing copies of Little Century 12-4 pm, Sunday Nov. 18 at the Audubon Society’s Wild Arts Festival, at Montgomery Park in Portland. Can’t wait to meet a number of great Northwestern writers–Brian Doyle, Floyd Skloot, John Daniel, Paulann Peterson, and many others–at this festival focused on nature and the landscape of the northwest.  My people!

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Anna Keesey is a graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.  Her work has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Best American Short Stories.  She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship and has held residencies at MacDowell, Bread Loaf, Yaddo, and Provincetown.  Keesey teaches English and creative writing at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon.