For Karen Edmonds, storytelling isn’t just about imagination — it’s about experience. After two decades in nonprofit and social service work, Edmonds made a midlife career pivot, shifting her focus to creative writing and editing. “I had always wanted to do more creative writing,” Edmonds says. “I’ve always wanted to write a book.”
That dream led her to Stanford University’s Continuing Studies program, where she earned a Certificate in Novel Writing. “I had two years of novel writing classes with great instructors and a cohort of students who were all working on their own novels,” she explains. “Through that period, I developed my writing skills.”
She is bringing that full circle at Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts & Agriculture (PMRCAA), where she will spend dedicated time refining her novel — a literary exploration of public land disputes, family divides, and personal transformation. “My novel is centered in Eastern Oregon and involves a fictionalized account of the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as its central conflict,” she says. “It’s based on the town of Burns — though I’ve renamed it — but anyone who’s been there will recognize it.”
For Edmonds, the novel is deeply tied to the theme of stewardship, a key focus at PMRCAA. “Public land is a phenomenon that’s prevalent in the West and unique to the West,” she says. “If you look at a map of public land in the United States, the East Coast has very little, just a few pinpricks and skinny corridors. As you move west, there are some small areas around the Great Lakes. But once you hit Wyoming, the map just lights up,” says Edmonds. “Over half of Oregon is public land, for example.” The novel seeks to explore the long-standing controversies around public land ownership. “Even the idea of public land, in some ways, is not consistent with the American private property rhetoric. In theory, this is land that belongs to everybody.”
Edmonds’ deep dive into the subject isn’t just academic — it’s experiential. “I volunteered for the Artist in Residence program at Malheur,” she shares. “I assisted a wonderful artist who taught the kids in elementary schools how to draw birds, and their artwork was displayed during the migratory bird festival. Living at Malheur for that time gave me a feel for the silence and vastness of the landscape.”
This spring, Edmonds will take her research even further as a resident at PMRCAA in Sisters, Oregon. “I’ll be working exclusively on the novel,” says Edmonds. “Being on a working ranch will inform my writing in a way that nothing else can.”
Join Karen Edmonds at Pine Meadow Ranch’s Open Studio on Thursday, May 8, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., to hear more about her novel-in-progress and the themes of land stewardship that shape her work. She will be joined by fellow resident artists Josh Anderson and Ben Erlandson.
