The Journey of Karoline Olsen

When her husband, Kristoffer, dies from a burst appendix in Iowa in 1905, middle-aged Karoline Olsen, mother of six, must make the 145-mile trip from Cedar Falls to Soldier by horse-drawn wagon to bring his body home. With the corpse on fast-melting ice, Karoline struggles to make good time across the rolling prairie during an exceptionally hot summer, recalling the story of their rocky marriage that brought them from Norway to the New World. The young couple, ambitious and naïve, arrive in the United States in 1884 with hopes of establishing a farm among other Norwegian immigrants, but are met instead with a constant battle against disease, famine, and poverty. A chronicle of the Olsens’ fight to survive in the undeveloped Midwest, to preserve tradition in a new context, and to protect their family from the ravages of pioneer living, The Journey of Karoline Olsen is the tale of a woman and a wife building the American Dream out of nothing but the dirt on which she stands. Ann Hanigan Kotz’s debut novel of love, loss, and heartache is based on her own family’s heritage, traced back to its roots and re-imagined through a fiction akin to Faulkner.

Ann Hanigan Kotz was born in Denison, Iowa, and lived on a farm southwest of town with her parents and five siblings. During her summers, she spent time at the Carnegie Library, where reading becoming a passion early in her life. After high school, Ann attended the University of Northern Iowa and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English. She started her education career in 1988 and continued teaching high school English for thirty-three years, finishing at Waukee High School in central Iowa. She also received a Master of Arts in Education from Viterbo University. As a teacher, Ann was passionate about making her students better writers and readers. She credits her writing ability to studying and teaching the craft. Later in her profession, Ann taught college-level classes to high school students who themselves wanted to become teachers. Ann considers teaching one of the most honorable professions. Retired from teaching, Ann currently resides in Adel, Iowa, with her husband, John.