2021 WILLA Literary Award Finalist in Contemporary Fiction
2020 MWSA Founder's Award
"I am always the daughter trying to write my way home."
SHORT BIO:
Kathleen M. Rodgers is a novelist whose work has appeared in Family Circle Magazine, Military Times, and in several anthologies. A professional writer for more than forty-five years, her novels have garnered many awards and favorable reviews from readers. She’s been featured in USA Today, The Associated Press, and Military Times. The Flying Cutterbucks, her fourth novel, is a 2021 WILLA Literary Award Finalist in Contemporary Fiction from Women Writing the West. It released June 2020 from Wyatt-MacKenzie and is represented by Diane Nine, President of Nine Speakers, Inc. Rodgers is working on her fifth novel and is a grandma to grandsons Reader (8) and Colton (2). Her two big rescue dogs, Denton and Jav, offer emotional support along with her husband, Tom, a retired pilot and her biggest champion.
LONG BIO:
Born and raised in Clovis, New Mexico, Kathleen M. Rodgers is a novelist whose stories and essays have appeared in Family Circle Magazine, Military Times, and in anthologies published by McGraw-Hill, University of Nebraska Press/Potomac Books, Health Communications, Inc., AMG Publishers, and Press 53. In 2014, Rodgers was named a Distinguished Alumna from Tarrant County College/NE Campus. Three of her aviation poems from the book Because I Fly (McGraw-Hill) were featured in an exhibit at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island, NY. In 2017, the Clovis Municipal School Foundation in Clovis, NM awarded her the Purple Pride Hall of Honor Award under the "Sports and Entertainment" category.
Rodgers' fourth novel, The Flying Cutterbucks, is a 2021 WILLA Literary Award Finalist in Contemporary Fiction and won a 2021 Gold Medal in Fiction-Realistic from Readers' Favorite Book Awards. The story is set against the backdrop of the 2016-2020 presidential elections and deals with strong women and a USAF fighter pilot MIA in Vietnam. Story Circle Book Reviews named it an Editors' Pick and Midwest Book Reviews highly recommends it. Jonathan Haupt, Executive Director of The Pat Conroy Literary Center, interviewed the author about the novel for Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. The novel released from Wyatt-MacKenzie June 2020 and is the April 2021 Book of the Month for The International Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Reading Nation. The audiobook released June, 29, 2021 from Skyboat Media and is narrated by voice talent and longtime friend, F Michelle Williams, based in New Mexico where the novel is set. Michelle and Kathleen were interviewed by nationally syndicated radio host Ed Kalegi on The Weekend With Ed Kalegi.
Seven Wings to Glory, Rodgers’ third novel, deals with racism and war and won the 2020 MWSA Founder's Award and a Silver Metal for literary fiction. In 2017, it won an Honorable Mention for War & Military in the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Awards and was shortlisted for the 2017 Somerset Awards.
Her second novel, Johnnie Come Lately, has garnered multiple awards, including the 2015 Gold Medal for literary fiction from Military Writers Society of America. The novel has been featured in Family Magazine, Stars & Stripes, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Southern Writers Magazine, and on "The Author's Corner" on Public Radio." The audio edition is narrated by Grammy® Award-winning vocalist and Broadway actress Leslie Ellis. Thorndike Press, the leading large print publisher in the United States, released Johnnie Come Lately and Seven Wings to Glory in hardcover large print editions in early 2018.
Rodgers is also the author of the award-winning novel, The Final Salute, featured in USA Today, The Associated Press, and Military Times.
She and her husband, Tom, a retired USAF fighter pilot/commercial airline pilot, reside in a suburb of North Texas with two rescue dogs. After raising two sons, she became a grandmother and is at work on her fifth novel.
"When we elevate others, we elevate ourselves. Let's all go be elevators."
~ Kathleen M. Rodgers, writer
Represented by Diane S. Nine, President of Nine Speakers Inc.
https://linktr.ee/kathleenmrodgers
Photo circa 1977 when I worked as a journalist
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