LaToya Watkins

Dec 5, 2023 | themillions.com | LaToya Watkins

A Year in Reading: LaToya Watkins I read to escape a dying world in 2023. I spent the first part of the year visiting people in hospitals. There seemed to be pain and suffering at every turn. I also did quite a bit of driving. I really got to know Texas that way. Made her mine as much as I could. At first, I was driving for family. Visiting the sick, the dying, the dead, and then it transitioned to research. I went to rodeos and visited animal farms.

Dec 5, 2023 | everand.com | LaToya Watkins

I read to escape a dying world in 2023. I spent the first part of the year visiting people in hospitals. There seemed to be pain and suffering at every turn. I also did quite a bit of driving. I really got to know Texas that way. Made her mine as much as I could. At

Sep 11, 2023 | lithub.com | LaToya Watkins

The eyes of an animal when they consider a man are attentive and wary. The same animal may well look at other species in the same way. He does not reserve a special look for man. But by no other species except man will the animal’s look be recognized as familiar. Other animals are held by the look. Man becomes aware of himself returning the look. —John Berger, “Why Look at Animals”*I do not consider myself an animal lover.

Aug 31, 2023 | bostonherald.com | LaToya Watkins

LaToya Watkins has surpassed the high bar set by her beautifully crushing debut novel, “Perish,” with a collection of short stories titled “Holler, Child.” Heavily rooted in west Texas where the author grew up, the 11 fictional pieces focus on Black lives — and the huge range of people and relationships within — to form a profound collection.

Aug 29, 2023 | kirkusreviews.com | LaToya Watkins |Pat Conroy |James McBride

A flabby, fervid melodrama of a high-strung Southern family from Conroy (The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline), whose penchant for overwriting once again obscures a genuine talent. Tom Wingo is an unemployed South Carolinian football coach whose internist wife is having an affair with a pompous cardiac man.