"Song of Hummingbird Highway" Brings Belizean Folklore, Sacred Cenotes, and a Soundtrack of 100+ Songs to a Magical Realist Debut
Koehler Books announces the release of Song of Hummingbird Highway, the debut literary fiction and magical realism novel by K.M. Cookie. Spanning 526 pages, the book blends romance, folklore, ancestral music, and cultural immersion into a high-stakes emotional journey that moves from the American Midwest and Laurel Canyon to the humming forests and sacred waters of Belize.
In Song of Hummingbird Highway, a Midwestern mother follows her musician boyfriend to Belize. When her son vanishes, she is pulled into a search that defies logic and demands faith. To bring him home, she must track him through folklore, sacred cenotes, and ancestral music, confronting not only what is hidden in the jungle, but also what is broken and brave within herself.
Structured in 30 chapters, each opening with an original black-and-white photograph, the novel offers a rare multimedia reading experience that is both cinematic and intimate. Music is not simply referenced, it is built into the architecture of the story. More than 100 curated songs are woven into the narrative as plot devices and metaphors, shaping character choices, emotional turns, and thematic revelations. The result is a literary journey that feels scored from the inside out.
The novel’s cultural foundation was developed through three years of research and direct collaboration with Belizean community members, including a three-year research partnership with Belizean cultural consultant and Reggae-Soul artist Mesha Steele. This collaboration was validated by the Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United. Through this process, the book elevates Garifuna, Mayan, and Caribbean traditions that are rarely represented in mainstream literary fiction, while honoring the living culture behind the story’s spiritual and historical elements.
Early response has been exceptional. Song of Hummingbird Highway is a Literary Titan Book Award Winner and a 2025 Speak Up Talk Radio International Firebird Book Award Winner. Literary Titan awarded it 4 stars alongside an author interview, praising it as "a story about the lies we believe about ourselves, and the long walk it takes to unlearn them," and recommending it to readers who "crave stories that hum long after the last page is done." Kirkus Reviews called it "an exploration of love, belief, and self-reclamation that hums with the conviction that creation is an act of survival." The novel holds a 4.33-star rating on Goodreads with over 5,300 giveaway entrants and nearly 5,000 want-to-read adds, currently ranks #1,725 in Cultural Heritage Fiction on Amazon, and features endorsements from Paul G. Stoltz, Eduardo Santiago, Joe Palmer, Surbhi Bansal, Heloisa Prieto (Brazilian bestselling author), JR Stewart, Mesha Steele, Cheryl Figueroa-Noralez, Jack Gist, and LB Keen.
Literary Titan praised the novel’s emotional intensity and cultural depth, describing it as “a story about the lies we believe about ourselves, and the long walk it takes to unlearn them,” and recommending it to readers who “crave stories that hum long after the last page is done.”
Song of Hummingbird Highway is available now. Purchase your copy on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and join the conversation online with the author at Instagram @kmcookieauthor, YouTube @KMCookieAuthor, and areyoucreating.com.
About the Author
K.M. Cookie is a believer in the truth of storytelling—and the transformative power of asking: “Are you creating?” The pen name of Kim Cook, she is the Executive Director of Career Success at American Career College, where she supports healthcare students across three Southern California campuses through career development, leadership training, and resilience-focused programming. She holds a UCLA Creative Writing Certificate and a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in writing, leadership, and business. A certified True Colors communication facilitator, Cook is also a national conference speaker on leadership and resilience, and her nonfiction work has appeared in Creative Nursing and Career Education Review.
Cook wrote Song of Hummingbird Highway through a disciplined 5am to 7am daily practice sustained alongside a full-time executive career over three years. The novel was shaped through extensive cultural research and a three-year collaboration with Belizean cultural consultant and Reggae-Soul artist Mesha Steele, validated by the Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United. Based in Southern California, Cook lives with her husband and their rescue pit bull, takes daily garden walks, and curates Spotify playlists that reflect her belief that stories and music share the same heartbeat. She is known for carrying pink sparkle Chuck Taylor shoes as a creative companion and for the question she asks everywhere she goes: “Are you creating?”
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