In Episode 32, we interview PEN/Faulkner award-winning author, Kate Christensen, about her tenth book, Welcome Home, Stranger, a razor sharp novel about love and loss published by HarperCollins. It is rare for me to blow off deadlines because I am so immersed in the work of another writer, but the galley copy is tea-stained—and tear-stained. I loved talking with Kate about the intricacies of making the first page work and setting up the entire book. The timing of this conversation was serendipitous, too, because Kate is currently teaching a class on beginnings at the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop, where her wisdom comes to roost. We had the chance to discuss everything from killing your darlings (as a writer), the evolution of a master storyteller, her mother’s influence on her mastery of human psychology, the joy of teaching and my favorite—”the upside of menopause.” I read a lot of Kate’s prior essays to prepare for this interview, and one that struck me as most poignant was how she describes liberating herself from the pressures of having to write like a man—which in her early years was not only encouraged but expected in the publishing industry. She summed up her dream in the 2011 article in Elle magazine, “I feel an urge to relinquish my inner d**k, at least for now, and fully inhabit a female narrator who is as free—as frank—and as fully herself as any man.” Kate Christensen has accomplished this and more with her memorable, hilarious, brilliant and broken-open heroine Rachel Calloway in Welcome Home, Stranger. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I loved co-creating it. You might feel you made a friend, too. Kate gets it.
Page One, produced and hosted by author Holly Lynn Payne, celebrates the craft that goes into writing the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of your favorite books. The first page is often the most rewritten page of any book because it has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. We interview master storytellers on the struggles and stories behind the first page of their books.
About the guest author:
Kate Christensen is the author of seven novels, including The Last Cruise, The Astral, Trouble, The Epicure’s Lament, Jeremy Thrane, In the Drink and The Great Man, which won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Christensen was one of only five women in 30 years at the time who had ever received this prestigious award. She has also published two food-centric memoirs, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. She teaches fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has taught numerous workshops in both memoir and fiction at various residencies and MFA programs throughout the United States, in addition to publishing many essays, reviews, and stories. She has recently finished the first book of her debut YA trilogy with her co-writer, Eliza Wolfe, for Disney Books and also finished her first detective book, published under a pseudonym for HarperCollins. When she’s not in Iowa teaching, she lives in Taos, New Mexico with her screenwriter husband and two dogs and is currently at work on a new novel. You can follow her on Instagram @kate.christensen100.
About the host:
Holly Lynn Payne is an award-winning novelist and writing coach, and the former CEO and founder of Booxby, a startup built to help authors succeed. She is an internationally published author of four historical fiction novels. Her debut, The Virgin's Knot, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book. She recently finished her first YA crossover novel inspired by her nephew with Down syndrome. She lives in Marin County with her daughter and enjoys mountain biking, surfing and hiking with her dog. To learn more about her books and private writing coaching services, please visit hollylynnpayne.com or find her at Instagram and Twitter @hollylynnpayne.
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Until then, be well and keep reading!
In service,
Holly