Costa Rica Writing Residency Winner!
Katie was one of two authors selected by Atmosphere Press out of some 500 applicants to attend their 2025 Writing Residency in Costa Rica. In the announcement, Atmosphere Press said, “It was a tough competition, but we loved your work and the energy you bring to the literary world. We’re thrilled to offer you this opportunity.”
The Residency will take place in Playa Flamingo.
Featured Works
All publications
*With a purchase of any book on Amazon, you’ll get a free copy of In the Midst of Sunflowers
About Katie
Katherine Elberfeld’s southern childhood and background as Episcopal priest infuse her work across a variety of genres including fiction, nonfiction and reflections. In addition to advanced degrees in writing, Elberfeld holds a Master’s in Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary. She was ordained to the priesthood in 1994.
Elberfeld grew up in Gainesville, GA, and now lives in nearby Marietta. She has two grown sons, is a Far Side aficionado, and cannot live without pickleball.
“In Elberfeld’s debut novel, a newly widowed, 50-ish woman looks back at significant moments in her life, reflected through the prism of memory and dream. ... Elberfeld creates a sense of ominous significance in small events, as memories often turn to dreams or nightmares. ... A lyrical exploration of memory, grief and choice.”
“Elberfeld’s novel is at once an evocation of southern child- hood and the record of a quest for meaning. ... In some ways Elberfeld reminds me of Jane Austen, for she carves careful detail in a tiny compass. In other ways she reminds me of Marcel Proust, for she meditates on the past: on the past as lived but also—inevitably—on the past as it might have been lived.”
"[The stories] are united by a memorable voice, unique and engaging while reminiscent of other great voices of Southern literature."
"Katherine Elberfeld's acute eye for detail and a deep understanding of human nature bring the characters to life in her short story collection Make Yourselves at Home. We come to know Red as she searches her husband’s changed psyche for the boy with whom she fell in love. We come to realize the ways in which a perfume bottle links a dying grandmother with her past. We gather for lunch in a boardinghouse filled with confusion, sorrow, joy, and grace. Through it all, what stands out in Elberfeld's stories is her ability to strike a delicate balance between the comic and the dark."
"In a series of connected vignettes that, at times, metamorphose into prose poems, Katherine Elberfeld treats her readers to a plethora of existential dilemmas in a unique voice laced with rich metaphors and repeated imagery. Elberfeld’s work, reminiscent of such diverse authors as Flannery O’Connor, Marcel Proust, and Marilynne Robinson, explores topics ranging from childhood influences and adult companionship to male-female relationships in the workplace and beyond, and, ultimately, to love and God, illness and death. If you are looking for a book with stellar prose that skirts the boundaries of creativity, An Umbrella Made for a Man is the book for you."
"The umbrella that was made for a man appears early in the novel and encompasses Irene’s struggle to survive the patriarchal reality that permeates every aspect of her life as an Episcopal priest. Friends, family, life, and death culminate in confusion first and then razor-sharp clarity revealing to Irene that love, after all, never goes away and is the fiercest of all forces pulsing through the universe. Elberfeld assures us that we need only to remember our dreams. I’ll see you in my dreams."
