Nothing but the Dirt: Stories from an American Farm Town

In this work of creative nonfiction, author Kate Benz provides an intimate look at the present-day residents of Courtland, Kansas (population 285), a town whose economy depends almost entirely on agriculture.

Through charming, first-person accounts, Nothing but the Dirt: Stories from an American Farm Town tells the whole story of life in Courtland, bucking the “Rural America is dying” narrative that so often proliferates national headlines about small-town USA.

Throughout the book, Benz paint...