Meet Katherine Scott Crawford | Author

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

Hi Katherine Scott, can you tell us about a book that has had a meaningful impact on you?
I read Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides when I was a kid (probably too young to be reading it). It was one of the first books I’d read which made me think two things: 1) THIS is what I wanted to do: write beautiful, hard, complicated, and rollicking stories like Conroy did; and 2) that it was possible to both love a place and abhor the dark side of its history, and to give voice to that conflicting emotion on the page.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a journeyman (or journeywoman) artist: I crave experience and adventure, and my writing reflects this. While I have one historical novel published, and another, The Miniaturist’s Assistant, launching on May 13, 2025 from Regal House Publishing (a Raleigh, NC-based publisher), I’ve also been a newspaper columnist for Gannett, published essays and other creative nonfiction, poetry, and more. I’m obsessed with history, with the tricky, porous nature of time, and I love nothing more than using my fiction to envelop readers in exciting, complicated worlds so very different yet so intrinsically similar to our own.

I’ve written creatively since I was a kid. I studied English and Speech & Communications as an undergrad, freelanced for my hometown newspaper, then earned two graduate degrees: an MA in English, and an MFA in Writing. I secured a literary agent and had my first historical published by a small press before earning my MFA, and the author-mentors I studied under helped me hone in on my particular talents and work on my challenges. None of it was easy: Publishing novels is a long, dedicated, sometimes infuriatingly subjective process. You never know who’s going to like your work, and who isn’t. So much of it is about luck, and access. When I wrote my first novel, I didn’t have children. While earning my MFA, I balanced jobs as an adjunct college English professor and columnist, being a graduate student, and being mom to a toddler and a new baby. I met these challenges with a ridiculous sense of optimism, an inner voice telling me that writing was what I was meant to do, an all-or-nothing sort of work ethic, and invaluable support and understanding from a dedicated spouse and other family members.

I’m an adventure-loving, outdoor-obsessed, travel-junkie with a Bohemian soul. I’m sometimes maddeningly undefinable–but this is what makes my books unique: I cross genre boundaries, and I try always to deliver a beautiful, rollicking, deeply researched, and complicated story. I hope I do.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Brevard, North Carolina is an outdoor-lover’s paradise, and depending on what season my friend visited, what we’d do might change. But if it was a summer visit, we’d grab a chocolate croissant from Bracken Mountain Bakery and coffee from The Brown Bean in downtown Brevard, pack some bagel sandwiches from Sunrise Cafe and head into the Pisgah National Forest. We’d find a lesser-traveled hike in low Pisgah, or head into high Pisgah, maybe watch the sunset from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Somewhere along the way, we’d head back down into town for a visit to Highland Books, drinks at downtown’s social district, or take a bike ride along the bike path to The Hub & Pisgah Tavern, Ecusta Brewing, or Oskar Blues for beers and live music. I’d also have to take them by our historic courthouse and hit up our fantastic outdoor stores like D.D. Bullwinkle’s Outdoors, The Hub, and Next Venture. We’d also have to catch world-class music at the Brevard Music Center, or free events like yoga at our fabulous Transylvania County Library’s outdoor amphitheater.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My family, friends, and teachers deserve a enthusiastic and grateful shoutout for any success and joy I’ve found in being a published author. I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was seven years-old, and these people have done nothing but encouraged, supported, and believed in me every step of the way. They stoked my dreams of being a writer, and believed in me more than I believed in myself.

Website: https://www.katherinescottcrawford.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewritingscott/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-crawford-78814b7/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatherineScottCrawford

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