Erika T.

Wurth

Urban Native

Speculative Novelist

Travels from: Denver, CO

“Twisty and electric. . . . Wurth handles the suspense with an expert hand. The novel unfolds in short, tense chapters that glide between past and present, and often torque into hair-raising turns.” —New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)

Erika T. Wurth’s novel White Horse is a New York Times editors pick, a Good Morning America buzz pick, and an Indie Next, Target book of the Month, and BOTM Pick. She is both a Kenyon and Sewanee fellow, has published in The Kenyon Review, Buzzfeed, and The Writer’s Chronicle, and is a narrative artist for the Meow Wolf Denver installation. She is an urban Native of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent. She lives in Denver with her partner, step-kids and two incredibly fluffy dogs.

In White Horse, Erika tells the story of Kari James, an Urban Native, and a fan of heavy metal, ripped jeans, Stephen King novels, and dive bars. Kari’s journey toward a truth long denied by both her family and law enforcement forces her to confront her dysfunctional relationships, thoughts about a friend she lost in childhood, and her desire for the one thing she’s always wanted but could never have…

White Horse is a gritty, vibrant debut novel about an Indigenous woman who must face her past when she discovers a bracelet haunted by her mother’s spirit.

Erika T.'s Featured Titles

Structuring Your Novel

A lot of MFA programs and creative writing classes in general focus on, when comes to fiction, the short story. But most folks are most interested in writing a novel. In this craft lecture, we are going to talk about the major “beats” that take place in a great majority of the novels that people read and why they’re important, so that you can end up with your own concrete “beat sheet” or roadmap for your novel. We’ll also talk about a number of alternative structures.

Strategizing Around All Stages of Your Manuscript

Whether you end up with a smaller, independent press, or a large, traditional New York press, getting there can be difficult—and once you do have a book under contract, how do you bring your audience to it? Networking, residencies, conferences, and everything around your book, is exactly what people often don’t talk about. In this seminar, I’ll talk about putting away the dreamier aspects of the book life (the good stuff, like working on your craft!) and looking at what the career paths are that folks can take to support a literary life. We’ll also talk about what happens at all stages of your career—and what you can do to help utilize your specific skill set that might bring publishers, agents, and editors to you—and to your book, once it’s about to be out in the world.

What Speculative Literature Can Do That Realism Can’t

The American cannon is filled with excellent literature that takes place in the now, and that involves an ordinary, civilian person in slightly extraordinary circumstances. However, speculative fiction—an umbrella term for Horror, Science-Fiction and Fantasy, allows the author to move into a far-flung future or planet—or into the supernatural. Often billed as exclusively commercial, speculative literature is a genre that allows the author to explore all of the conventions of literary fiction (depth of theme, complex characterization, attention to form/structure) but with additional dimensions. Horror gives us supernatural creatures that can represent not only big, human fears—but political and cultural ones as well. Science-fiction often explores the bigger theme of climate change. Fantasy, horror’s lighter side, allows us to take the stories of our ancestors, and move them into new, more liminal territories. Overall, speculative fiction allows us the space we need to address big questions, ones that can’t be answered in within the confines of realism/drama.

Pulling From Every Genre

Whether you’re writing something that goes under the umbrella of what is now being deemed speculative or whether you’re writing a crime novel, it’s important to read widely, and take the tactics that all genres and forms are generally good at employing, and employ them in your work. In the crime genre, structure is often king, and there’s much to be said for looking at a tried-and-true form. In speculative fiction, an umbrella term that these days often includes science fiction, fantasy and horror, the imagination that goes into building worlds is something to take away. In realism/drama—whether the form is more narrative, or post-modern (aka literary), because these have been the literary fiction norms, writers in these genres are often masters at dialogue, inner-monologue, complex characterization, deviation from the formula in terms of form, and attention to language. In this talk, I speak to the histories of each genre and the ways to concretely pull from the tactics of every one, regardless of which genre you’re writing in.

“Erika T. Wurth is an incredible guest-speaker. Gracious with her time, she is funny, knowledgeable, and able to address myriad kinds of readers. Our event included teens, the elderly, and all ages in between. I’ve rarely seen a more engaged audience.” — Westminster Public Library, 2024

“An edgy delight. . . .Combines potboiler beats with an off-kilter, dreamlike atmosphere. . . . White Horsedistinguishes a gritty new punkish outsider voice in American horror.” — Esquire

“Excellent.” — Tommy Orange, on The Today Show

“Superb. . . . An easy, fast read that almost demands to be devoured in a single sitting. . . . [Wurth] has pushed against narratives that perpetuate Native American clichés, which makes this a must-read.” — NPR.org

“Crack open a cold one, pull on a well-worn band T-shirt and get ready for some spine tingles.” — Good Housekeeping

“Erika T. Wurth busts onto the writing scene like a wrecking ball. . . . Glorious. . . . Creepy.” — Colorado Sun

“Propulsive. . . .Enthralling.” — BuzzFeed

“A debut ghost story that will knock your socks off.” — Ms. Magazine

“Stylish. . . . Old-school Stephen King fans, get on board.” — Philadelphia Inquirer

“Gritty, haunting, understated, and beautiful.” — CrimeReads

“A gritty, vibrant debut.” — Nerd Daily

“An absolute stunner.” — Katy Hays, bestselling author of The Cloisters

“It’s metal to the end, it’s Denver to the core, it’s Native without trying–there’s blood, there’re roller coasters, and there’re about a thousand cigarettes smoked. What else can you ask for in a novel?” — Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians

“Family ties are made from rusty barbed wire in White Horse, a book that feels as welcome as a dark bar on a hot afternoon, and whose story burns like a shot of rotgut whiskey.” — Grady Hendrix, bestselling author of The Final Girl Support Group

“This ghost story is a perfect example of new wave horror that will also satisfy fans of classic Stephen King.” — Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic

“An unapologetic world of dive bars, dark secrets, and true life horrors. I became completely enthralled. . . . Wurth [is] an exciting new voice in literary horror.” — Rebecca Roanhorse, New York Times bestselling author of Black Sun

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Honors, Awards & Recognition

New York Times Editors Pick
Indie Next Pick
TODAY 8 Books to Ready for Native American Heritage Month
Good Morning America Buzz Pick
Target Book of the Month
BookBub 12 Must Read Books by Indigenous Authors
Good Housekeeping 20 Best Native Writers
2020 Colorado Book Award Finalist
2020 In the Margins Top Ten and Fiction Recommendation
2019 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist