CATBOAT ROAD

From hard news to fiction novels, former editor Kate Rounds publishes first book

Story and Photos by Daniel Israel

Kate Rounds has worked in the media industry for much of her life, but has always wanted to be a published author. Now, the longtime Jersey City resident has fulfi lled that dream after the

publication of her fi rst novel entitled Catboat Road.

Kate said she vividly remembers the fi rst time she wrote something as a child.

“I can remember the fi rst story I wrote,” she said. “I was about 5. It was about a blade of grass that got murdered by a lawn mower. What I remember most is that I asked my dad, ‘What does this mean?,’ like I was trying to get some contextual analysis.”

While keen on creative writing and the like, Kate decided to pursue journalism to make a living. Rounds was the Editor-in-Chief of Jersey City Magazine, as well as other Newspaper Media Group publications including the Hudson Reporter, the Bayonne Community News, Bayonne: Life on the Peninsula Magazine and 07030 Hoboken Magazine for the last 15 years. Prior to that, she was a Senior Editor at Ms. Magazine, where she served as Gloria Steinem’s editor, and worked fi ve years as a Speechwriter and Executive

Photo by Daniel Israel

Kate Rounds

Photo by Daniel Israel

Editor at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

“I’ve always wanted to write fi ction and, like a lot of writers, I ended up doing two things that you can do to make a living,” she said. “One of them is journalism, and the other is teaching literature. When I was young, I thought journalism was exciting, so I chose journalism.” While Kate opted for a career path in the news industry, that didn’t stop her from writing fi ction.

“It’s taken me this long not to write a book, but to get anybody to pay attention to it to get it published,” she said. “Many authors have written tons of novels over their lifetime, but they never see the light of day. That’s true for me, too.” In the works for years

Kate has been working on Catboat Road since 2015, and is now fi nally able to have it published by Bywater Books.

“This book I remember I started on December 15, 2015,” she said. “So it took me from 2015 to write it and to get an agent and a publisher and the whole thing. Getting an agent and publisher took longer than writing it.”

Without giving too much away, Kate gave a brief summary of Catboat Road: “The book is pretty easy on the surface. It’s about a teenage lesbian who falls in love with her mother’s best friend. It’s about how that plays out. I won’t give away any spoilers, but it ends in a way that probably most people wouldn’t expect. Let’s put it this way, nobody goes to the slammer.”

According to Kate, the book was inspired by a conversation she overheard as a teenager.

“For some reason, this stuck in my mind,” she said. “My brother and I were eavesdropping on my mother and her friend. Her friend was crying, and it’s a big deal for younger people when older people cry, right? She was crying because her husband had left her, but something about that scene of her crying made me think it would make a good story.”

The book stems from that memory from her formative years, setting up the start of the story.

“So the way the book starts is with kids eavesdropping on the stairs,” she said. “It stems from that memory I had as a teenager.” First of many novels

Catboat Road is the fi rst book of many that Kate plans to have published. She is also exploring writing short stories.

“I’m working on another book now,” she said. “I don’t think I could ever make a living as a novelist. Not a whole lot of people do, only the cream of the crop. I don’t

Kate Rounds

Photo by Daniel Israel

think I could ever do that, but I’m always going to want to write novels. It’s what I want to do most.”

The shift from writing hard news to penning fi ction novels has been a welcome change for Kate.

“Being a journalist my entire life, it’s very freeing not to have to stick to the facts,” she said. “I know journalists have a bad name, everybody thinks we never stick to the facts. But even in a small publication like we’ve been working on, we stick to the facts. You get in trouble if you don’t.”

Those that understand, teach

Kate still writes occasionally, too, including for major publications like the New York Times. On top of becoming a published author, she has started teaching literature.

“I’ve been a journalist, I’ve been a novelist, and the opportunity came to be, what they call me now, a ‘prof,’” she said, noting that the title makes her laugh, “I said why not? It’s sort of like a three-legged stool. You’re a journalist, you’re a novelist, and you’re a teacher. I’m absolutely new at this teaching thing, but I’m very challenged by this idea that I would love these kids to leave the class knowing more than they did when they went in and hopefully to be inspired by what all us journalists and writers are inspired by, which is what you can do and say with words. It never ceases to amaze me.”

Kate is now a professor in the Writers Studies Department of Saint Peter’s University.

“It’s a fabulous Jesuit small college, which of course made big news during March Madness when they made it to the Elite Eight, and my experience with everybody here has just been great,” she said. “Saint Peter’s has just been great.”

Currently, the course Kate teaches is focused on fi ction, but she is looking to get into creative writing.

“It’s what other people would call literature,” she said. “We read books and we talk about books.”

As Jersey City as they come

Amid the changes in Kate’s life since she stepped away from her journalism career to pursue these other endeavors, she also moved from her garden apartment to a newer mid-rise apartment. However, she has remained in Jersey City, a city she has long called home.

“I’ve lived in Jersey City for a very long time,” she said. “I feel I don’t even know the exact date, but I think it was around 1989 or 1990 when I fi rst moved here.”

For some time after she fi rst moved to Jersey City, Kate lived on a boat in the nearby waters.

“I’ve seen enormous changes here, because from around 1993 to 2007, I lived on a boat in Liberty Harbor Marina, which was a great experience,” she said. “It’s kind of a village unto itself, when you’re living on a boat. Imagine what I’ve seen. Back in those days, you could just walk around literally on the river bank. Now you can’t, it’s all closed in. Back then, there were no high rises.”

While Jersey City has changed, so has Kate, and she still has a big space in her heart for the city.

“I love Jersey City,” she said. “You couldn’t pay me to live in Manhattan or Brooklyn, although I have lived in Manhattan before. Now I spend a lot of time visiting in Manhattan, and when I come back to Jersey I feel it’s so much more peaceful here. I just think Hudson is a great county.”

Kate highlighted how the city has become an epicenter for arts and culture.

“It’s important for people who are involved in the arts, whatever that may be, whether it’s writing, painting or music, that Jersey City is a real hotbed for people involved in any kind of cultural events,” she said. “Obviously COVID-19 put a damper on tons of stuff , but there’s so many musicians, writers, artists living here. I think it’s a great place for people who are interested in that kind of thing.”

According to Kate, living in Jersey City has not only been a great outlet for creatives, but has infl uenced her life and writing.

She concluded, citing formative years on the boat in the Liberty Harbor Marina: “I could have stayed in New York, but I wouldn’t have had the experiences that I’ve had here in Jersey City.”— JCM