Hood River author Kathy Watson will be at Bloomsbury Books in Ashland to read from her debut novel, Orphans of the Living. Watson will be joined in conversation by Shirleen Holt of Medford.
Watson and Holt worked together at Oregon Business magazine in the 1990s, where Watson was editor in chief and Holt was managing editor. The two will talk about how Watson adapted her mother’s family story for this novel, what is sometimes called “autofiction.” They’ll talk about how Watson created scenes in the long-ago town of Maxville, OR, in the Wallowa Mountains. They’ll discuss what it’s like to be writing and selling a novel in the chaotic world of book publishing, with nearly 2,000 new books coming out each week.
Orphans of the Living follows the Stovall family’s early 20th-century quest for home and redemption as they encounter racism, poverty and inequality across the American South and West.
The novel is a 2025 Literary Titan Book Award Gold Medalist in Fiction. Early reviews include this one from Willy Vlautin, winner of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and author of eight novels, including The Horse:
“Orphans is a stunning debut. Where has this writer been hiding? It’s all blood and soul and heartache and survival. A story of the powerful and the powerless. I can’t recommend it highly enough and I can’t wait to see what she does next.”
With the publication of her first novel, Orphans of the Living, Watson is returning to her first love: fiction. She lives in Hood River, where she writes, leads a chefs collective, and runs and hikes the Columbia River Gorge with Stu and Satchel, the world’s best dog.
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