Author Talk with Kate Washington of Already Toast

Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America tells the story of Kate Washington’s struggle to care for her seriously ill husband, offering a revealing look at the role unpaid family caregivers play in a society that fails to provide them with structural support. Available from Beacon Press in hardback, paperback, audio, and ebook editions, Already Toast, which Publishers Weekly calls a "wrenching debut," shows how all-consuming caregiving can be, how difficult it is to find support, and how the social and literary narratives that have long locked women into providing emotional labor also keep them in unpaid caregiving roles. In a starred review, Booklist calls Already Toast "an eye-opening account from a full-time caregiver...a timely and crucial appeal." On the TODAY Show, best-selling author Jasmine Guillory recommended Already Toast as a must-read spring 2021 nonfiction release. The book has been covered in the The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento Magazine, and excerpts have appeared in LitHub and Bitch.

Kate Washington is a writer in Northern California whose first book, Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America (Beacon Press, March 2021) has been called "an eye-opening account from a full-time caregiver...a timely and crucial appeal." The story of Washington’s struggle to care for her seriously ill husband, Already Toast offers a revealing look at the role unpaid family caregivers play in a society that fails to provide them with structural support. Already Toast shows how all-consuming caregiving can be, how difficult it is to find support, and how the social and literary narratives that have long locked women into providing emotional labor also keep them in unpaid caregiving roles.

Washington’s work includes creative nonfiction, essays, memoir, deeply researched longform pieces, and food writing. From 2017-2021, she was the dining critic for The Sacramento Bee. In recent years, her work has appeared in The New York Times; Avidly; TIME; Literary Hub; Bitch Magazine; Bellingham Review; Brain, Child; Catapult; Dame; Eater; Hippocampus; McSweeney’s Internet Tendency; Ravishly; The Toast; Southwest: The Magazine; Sunset Magazine; Yoga Journal; The Washington Post; and more. (For a more complete portfolio, please visit the Writing page.) She was local editor for the Zagat Survey's guide to Sacramento restaurants. She holds a Ph.D. in Victorian literature from Stanford University and is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier. She lives in Sacramento with her two daughters.

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