NOVELS
BOOKS & Publications
WIDER THAN THE SKY
In the wake of sudden tragedy, twin sisters uncover a secret that rips open their world. Katherine Rothschild explores the pain and power of forgiveness in a stunning debut novel that will shatter your heart and piece it back together, one truth at a time.
Sixteen-year-old Sabine Braxton and her identical twin, Blythe, don’t have much in common. When their father dies from an unexpected illness, each copes with the loss in her own way - Sabine by “poeting” (an uncontrollable quirk of bursting into poetry at inappropriate moments) and Blythe by obsessing over getting into MIT, their father’s alma mater. Neither can offer each other much support...at least not until their emotionally detached mother moves them into a ramshackle Bay Area mansion owned by a stranger named Charlie.
Soon the sisters are united in a mission to figure out who Charlie is and why he seems to know everything about them. Neither is prepared for the secret they uncover. Confronted with the truth, Sabine chooses to learn all she can about the father she never knew - and ultimately must decide if she can embrace the legacy he wanted, but kept hidden from his children.
THE SWANS
A modernization of Swan Lake in the world of human trafficking, THE SWANS follows the dual narratives of Anna and Ash as their lives take a collision course toward love in the world of dance and danger. Set in New York City in the underworld of trafficking and in the brightly lit ballet studios of a major ballet company, this book explores what it takes to survive and to find love out of the ashes of a broken past.
WHERE THE SKY COMES FROM
Nea's been in the foster system long enough to know that she's really screwed up if her social worker had to separate her from her siblings. If only she could remember what happened the night that went down. But when she's enrolled in a new school with a Life Skills class just for foster kids and an art class that reminds her of who she was before she became the glue keeping her siblings together, she has a chance to find herself. But when a clandestine meeting with her sister reveals family secrets, Nea is thrown back into the world she realizes she barely escaped. She must decide what--or who--she's willing to sacrifice to get her family back together again. WHERE THE SKY COMES FROM is Girl, Interrupted meets Sex & Violence in the heartbreaking world of foster care.
RADIO
Before writing novels, Kath wrote for the radio, newspapers, and magazines. Below are excerpts and links to a few pieces.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Excerpt: "walking down Irving Street has begun to remind me of the Champs de Elysees in summer. But some neighbors aren’t crazy about this change. Evidently, a small child playing a tuneless Twinkle Twinkle Little Star woke 7th Avenue neighbors some Saturdays back. And others in the neighborhood say it’s too bad we have more vagrants..."
Excerpt: "It didn’t seem so weird at first: Starbucks inside Safeway. It’s coffee as you shop. It’s just one step further than a pre-grocery-shopping stop at the bank for cash or at Kodak for photos. But something was missing..."
ACADEMICS
Kath is a doctoral candidate in Composition and Applied Linguistics at Indiana University of PA. Many of my publications are academic. Below are examples of my academic work.
TEACHING INQUIRY IN FYC FOR RESEARCH SKILLS TRANSFER: CHAPTER 7, PURDUE UNIVERSITY INFORMATION LITERACY HANDBOOK
Excerpt: "There may be an ongoing argument as to what the role of FYC is (Fulkerson, 2005), but most FYC courses prepare students to be researchers in their disciplines. The first step in becoming a researcher is to develop the curiosity and inquiry skills needed to begin discovery. Although all of the above issues deserve to be addressed, instruction that directly supports the ACRL Framework Research as Inquiry frame is highly suited to already existing classroom practices in FYC. Including inquiry as a learning outcome in FYC may have the power to alter students’ Google-dependent research methods, to form foundational inquiry behaviors, and to transfer those positive research practices to discipline-specific courses and the workplace."
THE RHETORICAL EMERGENCY KIT: ENGAGING ETHICALLY WITH END THE SILENCE AND PORTEST RHETORIC ON CAMPUS IN CRISIS CURRICULUM & PEDAGOGY
Abstract: This article offers a theoretically based solution to faculty hesitation to engage in difficult dialogs on a campus in crisis. Using the constructs of Ratcliffe’s language of rhetorical listening through the lens of Freire’s interactive educational framework from the stance of second-wave whiteness studies, this paper argues that instructors can engage in ethical discourse in situations of campus crisis such as vandalism, campus hate crime, instances of micro-aggressions, national tragedy, or other traumatic events. Drawing on a history of social justice in the classroom, the importance of listening, the necessity of reflection on whiteness, the self, and social inequity and immersive forms of social justice this article explores the theoretical constructs of rhetorical listening as a framework to create a safe space for students to voice their concerns in moments of unexpected upheaval.
WHAT WOULD JOHN OLIVER DO? (with Dr. Meghan Sweeny)
Excerpt: "Because students are in a daily state of information intake and moment-to-moment decisions about the quality of information they ingest through a variety of uncontrolled sources, information literacy is more important than ever. And yet, it’s also one of the hardest modules with which to engage students—because they believe they’re already adequately information literate (Kovalik 2013). As many students believe they’re already fluent in information literacy, in an attempt to overcome their reluctance I employ John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight as a model for and assessment of IL. Segments from the half-hour news show can open pathways to engage students in personal reflection and in a dialogue they might otherwise find irrelevant."
