author bio

Photo by Karen Walrond

Katherine Center is the author of four bittersweet comic novels about love and family, including The Bright Side of Disaster, Everyone Is Beautiful, and Get Lucky. Her newest book, The Lost Husband–which Kirkus Reviews calls “heart-rending and heartwarming” and Bookfinds calls “sweet, smart, and inspiring”– goes on sale May 7, 2013. Her books and essays have appeared in Redbook, People, USA Today, Vanity Fair, Real Simple, the Dallas Morning News, and the Houston Chronicle, as well as the anthologies Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers on the Mother-Daughter Bond, My Parents Were Awesome, and CRUSH: 26 Real Life Tales of First Love. Two of these essays were performed the Dallas Museum of Art’s Texas Bound Reading Series.

Katherine Center

Library Journal calls Get Lucky a “thoroughly enjoyable girlish romp,” and Kirkus Reviews likens Everyone Is Beautiful to the 1950s motherhood classic Please Don’t Eat the Daisies: “Center ’s breezy style invites the reader to commiserate, laughing all the way.” BookPage named Katherine one of seven new writers to watch, and her first novel, which People calls “cleverly told and uncommonly appealing,” has been optioned by Varsity Pictures.

Katherine sometimes blogs, Facebooks, Tweets, makes video essays, and speaks to all kinds of groups and book clubs. (And sometimes she just hangs out at her house, writing books and goofing around.) She lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her awesome husband, two sweet children, and their fluffy-but-fierce dog, Sweetie, who protects them all from squirrels, Rottweilers, and UPS trucks.

Photo by Karen Walrond

Here’s Katherine in a Public Service Announcement in support of creative writing classes for children:

And here’s Katherine in 2007, telling the quick story of how she wrote her first novel:

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6 Responses to “author bio”

Birgitt van Wijk says:
February 26, 2009 at 9:45 pm

Dear Katherine,
I loved The Bright Side….. and am delighted that your new book is out. Of course I will buy it and reminiscence about my long gone “baby days”. Here is a picker-upper for those “beaten” days:

I am too blessed to be depressed
I am too annointed to be disappointed
I am good enough
I love myself, my family, my friends, my life
When shit happens it makes me stronger
It it hit’s the fan I take measures, then a shower
Chocolate takes care of the bad taste
Red wine takes care of the stress
Girlfriends take care of the disappointment
My dogs make me laugh
Life is good

Have wonderful time savoring the fruits of your labors

Kind regards,
Birgitt van Wijk
Bill Pannill says:
March 5, 2009 at 4:40 pm

Thanks, Birgitt. You always perk me up.
Sweets T says:
April 2, 2009 at 12:50 am

I recently discovered your books. I read each of them in a less-than-24-hour frenzy. I laughed, I cried…what can I say. My baby is only 18 months old and emotions about all this mom stuff still run high. I hope the next book is already on it’s way, because I can hardly wait!

P.S. Does the public have access to all these fantastic short stories, or is that just a dust-jacket tease?

Shelley
Fabienne says:
May 8, 2009 at 1:06 am

Hi Katherine,

I met you on the reading organized by your sister Shelley. I am the one with the “fun” pink glasses.

I read your book “Everyone is beautiful” the following friday and on saturday my second son was born…So I have now a pretty “avant-gout” of what life is going to be with only boys at home….

Also I have to thank you. Shelley recommended me the midwives of Women’s hospital and I just had the best birth experience ever with Theodora.

All the best for your work and looking forward to your next novel.

Fabienne
Megan DiPrimeo says:
May 22, 2009 at 6:06 pm

Dear Mrs. Center,

I will begin by telling you that I work for a library and second, that I’ve never finished a book entirely, in my life. I’m college educated and managed to skate through most of the papers by reading most of the books but never the whole book. How terrible is that?

My reason for writing this comment is to say, I have officially read both of your books cover to cover and enjoyed them more than you could imagine. I smiled, I related, and I couldn’t put them down. You’re a brilliant writer and I’m thankful your imagination and creativity exists. Thank you for showing me how to “escape” into a fiction book. It was a great vacation from single motherhood and broken heartedness, even if just for a few hours late each night.

I look forward to reading more of your novels. Keep them coming. You’re truly an inspiration.

Many Blessings and Peace,
Megan DiPrimeo
Kendall Dolphin says:
July 16, 2009 at 3:00 am

Currently, “Everyone is Beautiful” is my top book of 2009. I am an “amateur” reader but also a book-aholic who loves to read fiction that deals with relationships and growing as individuals. I am 49 and my kids are 23, 20, 18 and 13 so long out of the physically demanding stages that you write about in this book. The book vividly protrays human frality and beauty through Lanie’s growth as a photographer. Your ability to capture what woman feel as mothers, proud of what we do but insecure about what we don’t, really stuck with me even months after I finished reading. I have been recommending this book to my mom’s book club, my daughter’s book club, etc. I wish you continued success.