Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed A.R.K. Watson via phone call on June 30th, 2025. We have rearranged and edited some of the questions. This provides the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
What inspired you to launch Catholic Reads?
When I converted to Catholicism (from the Church of Christ) in college, I was taking a diversity in literature class. My professor said things in the class that seemed prejudiced against Catholics. I talked to the professor and she mentioned that she was actually Catholic herself. I then realized that I had projected my own anti-Catholic bias onto her.
And I was awoken to how literature can help in your spiritual growth through literature. I grew up in Tennessee (less than 3% of the population is Catholic) so I was surrounded by a lot of anti-Catholic bias.
In Flannery O’Connor book’s Wiseblood, I was provoked by how she portrays the South. I didn’t realize as a Protestant that her book was a dry satire. Once I became Catholic I found the jokes and learned how laughter and story can be tools to fight against prejudice.
Converting was like walking around with those old fashioned 3D glasses with one lens red and the other blue. I had my gut-Protestant reaction but also saw things from the Catholic perspective.