How Award-Winning Debut Novelist LaToya Watkins Writes

#PodcastersForJustice

Pushcart Prize-winning short story writer and debut novelist, LaToya Watkins, spoke to me about landing the cover of Publishers Weekly's Writers to Watch Fall 2022, the legacy of William Faulkner, and her debut "Perish."

LaToya Watkins holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas and her writing has appeared in A Public Space, The Sun, McSweeney's, Kenyon Review, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and elsewhere.

Her debut is Perish, a novel "... about a Black Texan family, exploring the effects of inherited trauma and intergenerational violence as the family comes together to say goodbye to their matriarch on her deathbed."

It has been named A Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Good Morning America, Essence, Esquire, The Millions, among others, and named Amazon’s best debuts in August 2022. 

The New York Times Book Review called Watkins’s Perish, "... an impressive feat of storytelling ... a difficult read and a tender story of silences and secrets."

Stay calm and write on ...

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In this file LaToya Watkins and I discussed:

• How she went from first-generation college grad to being compared to Alice Walker and Toni Morrison
• Carving out the time to write as a mother of three 
• How writing short stories prepared her to write the novel
• Why it takes her two hours to find her flow state
• Writing about intergenerational trauma and the cost of slavery
• And a lot more!

Show Notes:

• latoyawatkins.com
• Perish: A Novel by LaToya Watkins
• Writers to Watch Fall 2022 - PW
• Has Texas Finally Found Its William Faulkner?
• LaToya Watkins on Instagram
• LaToya Watkins on Twitter
• Kelton Reid on Twitter

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