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Tara Karr Roberts Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Tara Karr Roberts
Photo by Tim Roberts

Tara Karr Roberts

Tara Karr Roberts Biography

Tara Karr Roberts is a freelance writer, newspaper columnist, and journalism and English instructor at the University of Idaho. She is a lifelong Idahoan who grew up along the Pend Oreille River and now lives in Moscow, Idaho, with her family.

Tara Karr Roberts's website

This bio was last updated on 01/25/2024. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

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Interview

The author discusses her novel, Wild and Distant Seas, with writer Deborah Kalb for her blog, Book Q&As.

Q: What inspired you to write Wild and Distant Seas, and what do you see as the relationship between it and Moby-Dick?

I didn't read Moby-Dick until I was in my 30s, finishing a grad program very slowly. It was the first book I had to read for the last class I took, and I had honestly been avoiding it until then.

I was surprised by how strange and funny it was, but I was drawn immediately to the character of Mrs. Hosea Hussey — a Nantucket innkeeper who is the only woman with any significant speaking part in the entire novel.

My book started as a short story, my final project for the class, that paralleled a few chapters of Moby-Dick, starting with the idea that Ishmael was wildly misunderstanding Mrs. Hussey's situation and she needed to tell her own story.

I was particularly interested in exploring ideas that are largely absent in Moby- Dick because of the absence of women, like the joys and horrors of parenting and the limits that society puts on women (and, in turn, women are taught to put on themselves).

When the short story became a novel-in-progress, I knew I wanted to move away from the source material and make it a narrative of its own.

I think Moby-Dick echoes throughout Wild and Distant Seas: All of my ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Tara Karr Roberts at BookBrowse
Wild and Distant Seas jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Tara Karr Roberts but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Chris Bachelder

    Chris Bachelder

    Chris Bachelder is the author of four novels, including The Throwback Special, a National Book Award finalist and winner of the Terry Southern Prize for Humor. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Wild and Distant Seas

    Try:
    Dayswork
    by Chris Bachelder

  • Jennifer Habel

    Jennifer Habel

    Jennifer Habel is the author of the poetry collections Good Reason and The Book of Jane, which won the Iowa Poetry Prize. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Wild and Distant Seas

    Try:
    Dayswork
    by Jennifer Habel

We recommend 5 similar authors

View all 5 Read-Alikes

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From the best-selling author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. comes a funny, eye-opening tale of work in contemporary America.

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