Katie Schuermann

Instructor for The Institute for Classical Lutheran Education

A native of central Illinois, author Katie Schuermann studied vocal pedagogy and literature at Greenville University before earning graduate degrees in both choral conducting and music history from the University of Missouri—Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music. Today, she is a full-time homemaker, part-time musician, and seasonal writer whose “authentic, lyrical” (Arthur Just, 2011) voice has been enjoyed by readers across the world. Mrs. Schuermann’s recent catechetical fiction series based off of the Apostles’ Creed provides families and classrooms the opportunity to read, ponder, and discuss the nature and work of God the Father (Book 1: The Big Father and His Little Boy, Kloria, 2024), Son (Book 2: The Beloved Son and His Brother, Kloria, 2025), and Holy Spirit (yet unpublished). Her beloved, acclaimed Anthems of Zion fiction series, including House of Living Stones (CPH, 2014), The Choir Immortal (CPH, 2015), and The Harvest Raise (CPH, 2017), tells the story of Emily Duke, a choir director from the big city who moves to a small town in Illinois to direct the local church choir. Her nonfiction books, He Remembers the Barren (LL 2011; 2nd ed., EP 2017), Pew Sisters (CPH, 2013), and He Restores My Soul (EP, 2018), address the topic of suffering and the theology of the cross for the benefit of her sisters in Christ. And her latest standalone novel, The Saints of Whistle Grove (Kloria, 2023), tells the story of the life and death of a church told through the lives and deaths of the people buried in its cemetery. Mrs. Schuermann currently resides in Champaign, Illinois with her husband of 23 years, the Rev. Michael P. Schuermann. When not writing, she can be found singing, gardening, cooking, holding babies, or trying to climb the nearest tree.