alumni profile

Deb Caletti (’85): Author draws from academic, personal experiences

Deb Caletti is the award-winning author of Honey, Baby, Sweetheart.

By Megan Bower

When she transferred to the University of Washington from Bellevue Community College, Deb Caletti (www.debcaletti.com) was a small fish in a big pond.

“I always loved being on the campus and I still do,” she recalled during an interview. “I loved taking my book out by the Music Building.”

“I was always a reading kid,” Caletti said of her affinity toward literature. “I’m still a reading kid and the love of books and novels and a story and character; that was so deeply ingrained in my cells.”

It was her lifelong love for reading that first attracted Deb to writing, initially leading her to major in journalism through what was then the School of Communications. Caletti worked for the school’s radio station, known as KCMU, at the time. “I read the news on the radio. There was a lot of hauling equipment around,” she recalled.

As it turned out, hauling heavy equipment around wasn’t the only challenge Deb faced in journalism. “I was not temperamentally a journalist,” Deb said. “I sort of realized that at the end (of pursuing her degree). I felt embarrassed to ask people things that seemed intrusive.”

Soon after graduating from the University of Washington, she married and had children. “When I got married and had little kids, I started thinking,” Caletti recalled about her desire to write. “I had a hard talk with myself about that. I started seriously writing when my son was about 2 and my daughter was about 5.”

In doing so, she was able to experience what she calls “the best of both worlds,” where she was able to work at home as a fiction writer and be a stay-at-home mom, an opportunity that few are presented with.

Motherhood is a huge part of Caletti’s life, one that she uses both as a source of inspiration and perspective, and is key to her literary style. Caletti said, “I couldn’t imagine what my work would look like if I hadn’t been a mother. I think my kids really did learn that you can have a dream and you can go for it and make it happen.”

The fiction author has had several books published, including the notable The Secret Life of Prince Charming, The Fortunes of Indigo Skye, The Nature of Jade, Wild Roses and the award-winning Honey, Baby, Sweetheart.

Despite the fact that journalism did not suit her persona, Caletti felt that her academic experiences as a journalist in her early career were invaluable to her future pursuits as a novelist. “In terms of writing and creative writing, it does blend over,” Caletti said of her experience with the news media. “And then all of the broadcast stuff — I feel like my job now is really kind of a meld of that.”

Her favorite of the books she has written is Honey, Baby, Sweetheart. “It is dedicated to my kids. It’s about the place where we lived,” said Caletti. “It is close to my heart.” The book was a National Book Award finalist, an honor that Caletti is most proud of. “The award was an incredible honor that will follow me around for my whole life, thankfully,” Caletti said.

In between book signings, touring, pushing to meet deadlines and spending time with family, she has also managed to find time to volunteer in the community. The successful author has been involved with Richard Hugo House, a local center for writers, and has participated in countless literacy groups and library events on both local and national levels. She has also volunteered with Gilda Radner’s ovarian cancer organization, judging an annual writing competition in which teens write on how cancer has affected their lives.

Several of her books are now headed for film. Caletti’s stories were optioned by Vulcan Productions, the same organization that made the award-winning film Capote. Her works are to be made into a film series titled Nine Mile Falls. Although she opted not to write the screenplay, Caletti will be alongside the entire production process.

In the future, she plans to continue writing in the same unique style that has thus far earned her so much public attention. “Most of the time, I say it is like a Greyhound bus trip,” Caletti concluded. “You invite these characters on and you know where you are starting, and you kind of know where you are going, but how you are going to get there — you have no idea.”