Natalie Peeterse author page

Natalie Peeterse biography

Natalie Peeterse is a poet, editor, and publisher whose work spans children’s literature and contemporary poetry. She is the co-author, with M. L. Smoker, of Thunderous, a middle-grade graphic novel illustrated by Dale Ray DeForest and written for readers ages 8–12.

Peeterse holds an MFA in Writing from the University of Montana. Her poetry chapbook Black Birds: Blue Horse, An Elegy won the Gold Line Press Poetry Prize in 2011, and a second chapbook, Dreadful: Luminosity, Letters, was published by Educe Press in 2017. Her poems and essays appear in journals and in anthologies focused on human rights and contemporary American writing.

She is the founder and publisher of Open Country Press, established in 2016, where she edits poetry chapbooks and anthologies. Editorial projects have included collections responding to world literature and new work by emerging and established poets. Peeterse also helped launch the Open Country Reading Series to present writers and interdisciplinary artists.

Thunderous has been featured at regional and national literary events and was selected for programs highlighting books by Montana-affiliated authors. The story centers on Aiyana, a Lakota girl whose journey into a spirit world draws on Indigenous storytelling and contemporary coming-of-age themes for classroom discussion.

Selected works: Thunderous (with M. L. Smoker); Black Birds: Blue Horse, An Elegy (Gold Line Press, 2011); Dreadful: Luminosity, Letters (Educe Press, 2017).