Author Birthday – 15 November – Kate Fagan

Happy Birthday, Kate Fagan, born on 15 November 1981.

Kate Fagan Quotes

1. I came in through the side door or sports journalism and narrative non-fiction, though writing novels was always the dream.
2. [Storytelling is] just this beautiful, immersive way to learn about what existence is like — the similarities as well as the differences — inside the mind and heart of another person.
3. [Her writing process in five words] Writing, editing, editing, editing, editing.
4. I jot down ideas and the beginning of scenes, as well as take notes when I meet with my editor, all by hand in that notebook.
5. You’ll never feel like you know what you’re doing until you finish a full draft — no matter how riddled with errors it is. It’s only in the editing of that full draft that you can even learn what the mistakes were!
6. A novel is often like a tapestry, sewed with the author’s deepest memories, their most vivid totems. After which they take on a life of their own.
7. Three Lives is about many things – ambition, love, desire, to name a few – but also, it’s a book about the details that stick with us throughout life.
8. The trick of life, as I see it now, is to make what’s around you beautiful. It’ll grow from there. Took me a long time to see that. (The Three Lives of Cate Kay)

Source for quotes 1-5: Papier and 6-7: Reeses Book Club

Kate Fagan is an American novelist, Emmy Award-winning journalist, and author. She explores the lives of people trying to understand who they are and what they want. Her fiction examines friendship, relationships, personal ambition, and the ways people reinvent themselves. Her non-fiction also explores mental health, sport, and the pressures faced by young athletes. Her first book was the coming-of-age memoir The Reappearing Act. She is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of What Made Maddy Run, which was a semi-finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. Her debut novel, The Three Lives of Cate Kay, was a Reese’s Book Club pick. Her latest novel is Instant Classic. Follow her on Instagram.

Source for image: Rosiestep, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

by Amanda Patterson
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