Meet Katherine Center | New York Times bestselling author of How to Walk Away, Things You Save in a Fire, and The Lost Husband (now a movie that hit #1 on Netflix)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Katherine Center and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Katherine, how does your business help the community?
I love this question because no one ever asks me this. I write novels, and we think of novels as entertainment, or distractions, or homework . . . but I think, more than any of that, they are powerful tools for helping us all figure out our lives. The right stories at the right time can be incredibly nourishing and healing–and just powerful medicine for the soul. I always write stories about resilience, and compassion, and the triumph of the human spirit, and I always hope that my stories are healing and nourishing for people. And of course, the better off we’re able to be as people, the better off the whole world becomes. It sounds very grand to put it that way, maybe–but stories are always like that: tryiing to get at big things through tiny little details.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve written eight novels, including the instant New York Times bestsellers How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire. My novel The Lost Husband became a movie starring Josh Duhamel in 2020 and hit #1 on Netflix in the U.S. and was in the Top Ten in 30 different countries. BookPage recently called me “the reigning queen of comfort reads,” and that’s pretty much all I’ve ever wanted to be. I just want to write stories that make peole laugh, and comfort them, and challenge them, and help them turn back around and look back at their own lives with kinder eyes. I’m totally obsessed with the healing power of stories. I am all about reading for joy—for pleasure, for fun, for that deliciously hypnotic state of getting totally lost in an unputdownable book. I want to give people permission to find the books that resonate for them and read them voraciously and without shame. Stories can speak to us and change our lives like nothing else can. Not all stories heal us, or make us wiser, or lift us up, but I’m utterly fascinated by the ones that do—and those are the stories I try to write, too: Stories about people who get knocked down by life and have to figure out how to get back up. People who have to struggle through hard things, but who find ways to be wiser, stronger, and better on the other side. Stories that acknowledge life’s hardships but are also hell-bent on savoring life’s joy and tiny little moments of grace.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend came to Houston, we would EAT! We’d eat conveyer-belt Sushi at Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, get black bean noodles at the Korean Noodle House, grab pizza at Romano’s, eat bulgogi fries at Fat Bao, devour some brisket at Goode Company Barbecue, hit the original Ninfa’s on Navigation, and make our way to Khyber for saag paneer and chicken masala. I’d take her to Discovery Green, too, and to the Urban Harvest Farmers’ Market, and to the Julia Ideson library. We’d definitely take a drive down to Galveston, too.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to shoutout writer/director/filmmaker Vicky Wight of Six Foot Pictures, who brought the movie of my novel The Lost Husband to life and to worldwide success, despite many challenges—including, of course, the pandemic.

Website: https://www.katherinecenter.com

Instagram: http://instagram.com/katherinecenter

Twitter: http://twitter.com/katherinecenter

Facebook: http://facebook.com/katherinecenterfans

Image Credits
Skylar Reeves Photography