This week my guest is Latoya Watkins, author of the powerful debut novel, Perish, 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.*
“With Perish, Watkins joins a tradition of Southern writers who delve into the taboo and grotesque to expose a dark past and a dim, backtracking present. . .Like Walker’s The Color Purple and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Perish lures readers past the pain with a spellbinding, buoyant use of language.”—Texas Monthly
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About the Author:
LaToya Watkins’s writing has appeared in A Public Space, The Sun, McSweeney’s, Kenyon Review, The Pushcart Prize Anthology (2015), and elsewhere. She has received grants, scholarships, and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, MacDowell Colony, Hedgebrook, and A Public Space. She holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas. Perish is her debut novel. Learn more here.
*Perish delves into some really difficult topics including the trauma of sexual abuse so if that’s not something you’re in a mental space to hear discussed you might want to switch to another episode.
Browse Books Mentioned On This Episode:
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Happy Reading and Listening,
Laura Szaro Kopinski
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