Distrust of Government is a book-length collection of short stories centered in a tradition of literature of the American West, typically set in rural small-towns on the Front Range and Eastern Plains of Colorado. These stories are place-based, exploring land use issues such as fracking, water rights, mining, and agricultural policy through characters, mostly women, who are forced to negotiate the impacts on family and livelihood of land use decisions made by others. Distrust of government, loss, caregiving responsibilities, and the myriad other ways it can be difficult to love those who are closest to us are common themes in this work. These stories are my attempt to join conversations in progress on important and difficult questions: How should humans (and art) confront the Anthropocene? What does ethical land use look like? How can we stay connected to family and community? How does loss motivate or derail us?