Shelley Read comes from a long line of storytellers, a foundation she drew on when writing her first novel.

The fifth-generation Coloradan reached back to her memories of her grandfather, who wrote down family stories using a typewriter before they were lost to Alzheimer’s disease. This collection of memories, of stories of resilience and tenacity, is something she leaned on as she wrote “Go as a River,” released in February.

Like those homesteading ancestors, the main characters...