Dust

Publication: 2026

Author: Theresa Hottel

1930s Oklahoma, during the Dust Bowl, is a time of great confusion, social, economic, ecological—and supernatural. In the flowing dust, some people are seeing strange, otherworldly creatures, while others insist this is superstition, heresy, fraud, or madness. Shadowy flora supposedly sprout from human skin, and half-glimpsed fauna roam the dry prairie. As eerie, mesmerizing interactions with these “duskin” interfere with lives and livelihood, an informal organization of “dust doctors,” lonely wanderers, travel the Plains, braving dust storms and drought to help people and explore the duskin.

The best of these wanderers, a man named Draper, is drawn to an isolated town in need of his aid. To enter he must leave his close companions, and there he encounters more mystery, pain, and duskin than ever before, as well as strong bonds with townspeople who challenge and aid him. One of these is Bobby Sue, a twenty-five-year-old half-Chinese white-passing school teacher, who is both cautious and curious, and increasingly determined to understand and protect the children in her care who appear to be able to hear and communicate with the duskin.

Submerged conflicts and secrets bind this once thriving town to the duskin realm. A mad mayor, two gunslinging church founders, and especially a widower wheat baron named McHenry, with his own crucial ties to duskin, must all navigate the shifting power and climate of the town with Draper in their quest to safeguard their home, which falters in death and chaos. As Draper, eventually aided by Bobby Sue, races to solve the case, seeking to reveal the nature of the town’s enchantment and his own desire to discover and understand duskin, he comes to realize that a unique duskin is examining him back.

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