Writing While Walking with PEN/Faulkner award winning novelist Kate Christensen by James Navé / Twice 5 Miles Radio

Twice 5 Miles Radio, hosted by James Navé (www.jamesnave.com), welcomes PEN/Faulkner Award novelist Kate Christensen (www.katechristensen.com) to the microphone. The title of this show is Writing While Walking.

I first met Kate while I was participating in a fiction writing workshop she was facilitating at a writer’s conference in Taos, New Mexico. I liked Kate from the start because she had a lighthearted approach to teaching, while still respecting the serious attention one must bring to the writing process. As Kate facilitated our workshop, I enjoyed more and more her skill as a seasoned writer who taught with a smile and a humorous glint you sometimes see in curious eyes.

A few years later, I got to know Kate better when she and her husband Brendan to moved to Taos. That was when I discovered that not only had Kate published numerous novels, memoirs, and articles in journals, she was in love with food. Along with her novels and memoirs, I learned Kate was a food journalist interested in the nuances of how food reflects the identity of every culture in the world. Then, when I read her novel, “The Last Cruise” about an old luxury liner sailing towards its final horizon, I was delighted to discover how food pushed the entire narrative along to its unexpected ending.

Fortunately, Kate agreed when I suggested she join me on Twice 5 Miles Radio for the conversation you’re about to enjoy. Why the title Writing While Walking? Well, soon after Kate and I started our Twice 5 Miles conversation, she mentioned that she was dictating her current novel into her phone on her long walks through the rugged Northern New Mexico mountains. So, I thought what better title than Writing While Walking.

In this conversation, Kate also talks about story structure, the joys of simple cooking, environmental issues, and why the rough lands of New Mexico give her the vision she needs to expand the limits of her stories. Enjoy the show.