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CM educator, author wins prestigious High Plains Book Award

Darby Karchut’s latest novel is ‘On a Good Horse’

BY ELISE SAPPINGTON

“Stories are what make us human, and stories also make us humane.” These are the words of award-winning author and teacher Darby Karchut.

“I’ve always believed that all humans are storytellers,” said Karchut. “We all have a story to tell. We might tell it in a slightly different way, but storytelling is something that all people do.”

Her most recent book and the 2021 High Plains Book Award winner (Juvenile Fiction), “On a Good Horse,” is a story that captures the journey of Alex Nash, a young boy who, in the wake of the tragic loss of his mother, moves in with his estranged father, a horse-shoer in a small Colorado town.

“Alex Nash, the main character, is grieving for his mother, and the whole family has painted his father as the villain,” Karchut said. “When he starts to live with his father, he starts to realize that his dad has some good parts to him, too. So, his father buys him a really good horse to help bond together as father and son.”

The idea of the open plains and this good horse is a crucial bonding point to reunite Alex and his father.

“As I was writing the story, I started realizing that the themes were of kind of darkness to light, loss to healing, regret to redemption, sorrow to joy …” Karchut said. “Kind of the overall theme of the book is a theme of second chances for both the main character and his father; the second chance for this 12-year-old boy to go from grief to healing, and the chance for the father to go from regret to redemption.”

Karchut explained that there are parts of her in the many characters she has developed in her books, but none are truly her.

“I think it’s pretty hard to be an authentic writer if you don’t put a little bit of yourself in every one of the characters,” Karchut said. “And I think that’s true for any artist in any art form. If you’re a performing artist, there’s parts of you in that dance or that music recital, and if you’re a painter or sculptor, I’m sure there’s parts of you there, too.”

Karchut is best known for her fantasy series “Del Toro Moon.” However, in 2019, she decided to try her hand at a contemporary novel and began writing “On a Good Horse.”

An “award-winning author” was not what Karchut saw herself becoming when she began her professional career. She was also named a finalist for the 2021 Will Rogers Medallion in the Western Fiction for Young Readers category, and has an impressively long list of awards that can be viewed on her website, darbykarchut.com.

“I never wanted to be a writer at all. No ... writing is hard. Why would I want to do that?” Karchut said.

With a degree in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico and a 14-year career as a middle-school educator at Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School, Karchut now ironically finds herself as a writer — an award-winning author at that.

“Nothing teaches you how to write a book like

writing a book,” Karchut said. “And eventually, that turned into my debut novel. It’s just one of those things where writing is such an art form, but anybody can pick it up… There is a whole world out here ready to teach you how to write.”

Karchut published her debut novel in 2011 and has since written and published 14 books.

“I always make a joke when I’m doing my school visits that you know, you read, and you read, and you read, just stuffing and gorging yourself on the written word until one day you kinda throw up your own book,” Karchut said. “They always laugh but, it’s really true.”

CHEYENNE EDITION

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2021-10-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.gazette.com/article/282471417071550

The Gazette, Colorado Springs