Eliana Ramage holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has received residencies and fellowships from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Lambda Literary, Tin House, and Vermont Studio Center. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she lives in Nashville with her family. To the Moon and Back is her first novel.

"A powerful, resonant debut."--People

"Eliana Ramage's astral sweep of a tale follows Steph and those in her circle as they navigate ambitions, identities, fears, commitments, and values. It's a big, bumpy read - and worth it."--Christian Science Monitor

"If ambition is rocket fuel, Steph [Harper] has a full tank."--Oprah Daily

"Ramage stuffs the book to the brim with big ideas and digressions, from indigenous history to family identity, but it is the eminently human voice of Steph that keeps this maiden voyage feeling grounded and real."--NPR

"A queer coming-of-age story, a Native family drama, Ramage's tragicomic debut shoots for the stars."--The Boston Globe

"A story of decisions; right, wrong and everything in between, with characters so perfectly rendered that you'll want to hug them or give them a shake. An immersive and exciting debut."--Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers

"A novel that has the generosity to be many things--bittersweet, thrillingly perceptive, enormously funny. To the Moon and Back is a wonderful reckoning with the true price of an at-any-cost ambition and a powerful story about the mixture of combativeness, compromise and love that forms the heart of a family."--Kaliane Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of The Ministry of Time

"To the Moon and Back is a singular, sonorous, wholehearted novel that you'll want to devour and savor at once. Eliana Ramage is a dynamite writer--every sentence positively shimmers."--Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had

"An epic, enthralling and deeply humane novel of family bonds, belonging and the relentless pursuit of one's dream, that will make you laugh and cry along the way. Eliana Ramage is a formidable talent, and writes with so much heart and hope: I loved it."--Cecile Pin, author of Wandering Souls (shortlisted for the Women's Prize)

"To the Moon and Back simply soars. Eliana Ramage has given us a brilliant, faceted, warm-hearted novel, with characters to love and truly root for, and pages that seem to turn themselves."--Sarah Thankam Matthews, author of All This Could Be Different

"To the Moon and Back is a passionate and compulsively readable novel. Dare I say, a stellar debut."--Margot Livesey, author of The Road to Belhaven

"Eliana Ramage's To the Moon and Back is a captivating debut about family, queer identity, love, career and heritage. This novel has something for everyone."--De'Shawn Charles Winslow, author of In West Mills and Decent People

"A John Irving-esque tragicomic saga... This author is as ambitious as her protagonist: There are three novels worth of material here, all good. The moon or bust!"--Kirkus Review (starred review)

"Wondrous and deeply moving, Ramage's first outing explores ambition, sexuality, and familial bonds with sensitivity and piercing insight. Not to be missed."--Booklist (starred review)

"Exceptional. . . .Ramage nimbly handles this sprawling story, capturing the hearts of these characters in chapters narrated by alternating voices. . . . Readers will enjoy losing themselves in the ongoing drama of To the Moon and Back, full of complex characters, beautiful prose and arresting scenes."--BookPage, (starred review)

"Ramage's epic debut is absorbing and thought-provoking."--Arlington Magazine

"[To the Moon and Back is] a thought-provoking read about ambition, identity, family, and Indigeneity."--Book Riot

"Heart-wrenching."--Lesbrary

"Ramage, who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, manages a beautiful feat with the book, writing straight into the relentless way women--particularly women whose identities are anything other than white and heterosexual--must work to succeed in a man's world. Within that story, she layers the complicated, ever-changing needs, joys, responsibilities, losses, and difficult choices of a deeply ambitious woman across more than three decades of her life."--Chapter 16

Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster

Pub date: 2026-09-08

Length: 464 pages