KATE SCHATZ is a feminist author, educator, and public speaker. She's the New York Times-bestselling author of the RAD WOMEN book series; the novel WHERE THE GIRLS WERE; the 33 ⅓ BOOK RID OF ME: A STORY; and DO THE WORK: AN ANTI-RACIST ACTIVITY BOOK, co-written with “United Shades of America” host W. Kamau Bell. Kate taught Women’s Studies and Creative Writing at UC Santa Cruz, San Jose State, Rhode Island College, and Brown University. She currently teaches private Creative Writing workshops to youth and adults, and hosts “Writing Wednesdays”, a weekly Zoom co-writing session. She lives in the Bay Area with her wife, three children, and pets. In all she does, Kate is committed to sharing radical histories that shine light on the marginalized people who've truly made America great: the people of color, the immigrants, the queers, the punks, the weirdos, the artists, the workers, and the women. Kate tells us her first “book” was written in second grade and which she presented at the county-wide book fair. The book, LITTLE SISTERS, is about a young girl and her older sister, inspired by her relationship with her own sister. Kate still takes the book to presentations she does at schools. Kate realized writing could be a career when her book RAD AMERICAN WOMEN FROM A TO Z became in unexpected New York Times bestseller. Kate’s mom’s experience as a young woman inspired WHERE THE GIRLS WERE. Her mom had two unplanned pregnancies as a teen in the 1960s and both times, Kate’s grandparents sent her mom to a private home to wait out the pregnancy. Kate did not learn about the experience until her mom told her many years later. This inspired Kate to do research on maternity homes and eventually write this book. Her mom loves the book and has even accompanied Kate on book talks and events for WHERE THE GIRLS WERE. In WHERE THE GIRLS WERE, Baker, though very smart, knew very little about her own body and the maternity home she was sent to perpetuated silence around the pregnancy. This was also Kate’s mom’s experience, in that she knew very little about pregnancy and how to avoid pregnancy. Kate’s grandparents were wonderful, not particularly religious, and actually pretty progressive. Kate wanted to capture the fact that this was a typical option. One theme that comes through clearly in WHERE THE GIRLS WERE is the unequal burden women bear from the consequences of unprotected sex. Yet, the book mentions that for as long as there have been sex and babies, women are taking care of each other. Kate did want this truth to be evident in Baker’s story. The care women have taken, has often looked like hiding and secrecy. Kate also didn’t want Wiley to be a jerk. He’s just a dude. But she did want to show he just gets to walk away and continue his life. Linny likes how the mom was the parent that put all the energy into figuring out how to take care of Baker. The dad does nothing. Linda notes that Baker doesn’t have a lot of friends. She has a cousin. She makes some friends at the home. She visits a commune. Linda also notes that she and Nancy spent time in a commune when they were little! Linny asks Kate whether she thinks that Baker will eventually find her people. Kate says she actually thought about that as she was writing the book. Kate thought about the teen years when you often have not yet found your people. Kate believes Baker will find her people. Nancy notes that Linny used to dislike ambiguous endings but that she loved this one. Linny agrees and tells Kate that she’s not really a reader! Kate says leaving the ending ambiguous was very important to her. She wanted Baker to have privacy and make the decision that was best for her, because that is what women are so often denied when it comes to decisions about their bodies. Roe vs. Wade and the Dobbs Decision are about the right to privacy, more than access to reproductive health services. Kate also wanted readers to sit with their own thoughts about what Baker’s decision will be. Linny was confident that Baker would do what was right for her and that she didn’t need to problem solve for Baker. Kate notes that trust in making the right decision is one that society doesn’t give women. Nancy wanted to know why Lincoln showed up as part of Rose’s backstory. Kate’s grandmother was from Kansas, but also Kate needed a place that a trip to Chicago would feel like a significant trip, but it would also be achievable. Nancy also wanted to know what hope Rose's story held for Kate. Kate thinks of Rose as a portal for Baker to women’s experiences and women hold information and the ways women are protectors. Kate also wanted to show the fierceness of a mother’s love. Linny really saw that Rose had Baker’s back. Nancy was a little less persuaded until later in the book. Nancy notes that WHERE THE GIRLS WERE has a lot of information about what was happening politically, socially, and musically. Kate says it was important to set the book against the socio-political environment of the time. Kate grew up loving hearing her parents’ crazy stories about 1960’s San Francisco. Kate says it’s also just fun. She loves music. Kate made a playlist for the book that includes all the songs mentioned in the book, even the ones Baker doesn’t like. Kate purposely chose girls with very different backgrounds at the maternity home. Lizzie, the girl with the guitar, though, showed up to Kate unexpectedly! Kate did a lot of research and even conducted interviews with girls who were in maternity homes. She pulled some of that information to create those characters. Nancy thought the title, WHERE THE GIRLS WERE, was such a descriptive title: it asks the question the book answers. Nancy asks whether it was Kate’s title or her publisher. Kate said it wasn’t her original title. Her publisher said they wanted to change the title and after some brainstorming with them, Kate landed on WHERE THE GIRLS WERE. It also brings in more music as it is a riff on the song WHERE THE BOYS WERE. Nancy asked Kate about her book, DO THE WORK: AN ANTI-RACISM ACTIVITY BOOK. Kate said she and W. Kamau Bell, her co-author and good friend, were talking about how the books about racism coming out after George Floyd’s murder were very long and complicated. They knew addressing racism is very hard work (especially for white people) so wanted to use humor and used an unexpected format to have difficult conversations. There are activities like color by numbers (redlining), connect the dots, Jim Crow or Jim Faux (spoiler: all the laws are actual laws). Kate says her work, such as the RAD WOMEN series, she deals with difficult topics, but uses engaging storytelling and fun and playful visuals and activities. Kate says that writing has always been a passion, but so has social justice and change and feminism. These works enable her to satisfy all those passions. Kate says people can stay in touch with her through her Substack, I LOVE WHAT YOU’RE DOING. Her website is kateshatz.com and she is also on Instagram. Kate is working on a new novel. A new cast of characters showed up from a lesbian bar in Oakland, California. They are on a softball team and are moms. It’s a fun book, even though they do have to fight for custody of their children. Kate says she also has interviewed a lot of women for this book, too. Stop by the front porch next time when we will review INHERITANCE written by Jane Park