Max Watman

Author of
Race Day: A Spot on the Rail with Max Watman (Ivan R Dee, 2005)
Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine (Simon & Schuster, 2010)
Harvest: Field Notes from a Far Flung Pursuit of Real Food (W.W. Norton, 2014)
Tomorrow, the War (Skyhorse, 2026)

Max lives and writes on an old farm in Virginia. Erstwhile columnist at the Daily Beast, where he wrote on food and drink, and former horse racing correspondent for the New York Sun, Max has worked as a line cook, farmer, guitar player, silversmith, greenskeeper, warehouseman, and as a professor of creative writing at VCU in Richmond. Max is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship, and was a Courage to Write Grantee of the de Groot Foundation.

Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / MaxWatman.com/ BlueSky / Represented by Madison Smartt Bell

Tomorrow, the War (Skyhorse, 2026)

Race Day: A Spot on the Rail with Max Watman (Ivan R Dee, 2005)

An entertaining buffet of racing lore and legend told in a novel fashion and a crisp tempo. -- Joe Hirsch ― Daily Racing Form

There is nothing like a good racetrack story and Max Watman has mined the best and told them better than they’ve ever been told. A fascinating journey for anyone―racetrack lifers to casual fans. -- Sean Clancy ― Saratoga Special

Max Watman’s intimate, comfortable, and stylish prose about horse racing is almost equivalent to a perfect day at the races. ― Alaska Horse Journal

Fresh and Humorous. -- Amy Ford ― Library Journal

Each race makes for a good story, and Watman...is an amiable companion. -- Dennis Dodge ― Booklist

Many of these stories will be familiar to race fans. But the telling makes them worth reliving. -- Neil Genzlinger ― The New York Times

Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine (Simon & Schuster, 2010)

[Watman]’s a good storyteller because he’s a good listener—curious, amiable and game for anything…a merry companion, with a fondness for down-home wisdom and hell-raising.” —Mick Sussman, The New York Times Book Review

“Wildly entertaining.” —Jason Wilson, The Washington Post

“Chasing the White Dog uncovers the moral quandaries behind moonshine’s sheen of hick stereotypes and sheds light on an underground industry that shows no signs of letting up.” —Eddie Dean, Wall Street Journal

‘The maven of modern-day moonshine.” —Wayne Curtis, The Atlantic Monthly

“[H]ighly readable, crisply written . . . serves up every aspect of small-scale distilling in America.” —Larry Cox, Tucson Citizen

Harvest: Field Notes from a Far Flung Pursuit of Real Food (W.W. Norton, 2014)

[Watman] captures the swing and momentum of food preparation, the Zen of hunting and fishing, and the sweet, quirky joys of family life The Wall Street Journal —Eugenia Bone

Exuberant … [Harvest] is inspirational. —Dawn Drzal

A great motivator for those who have been too afraid to make their own charcuterie or shoot the raccoon eating their chickens, … this book succeeds not only as a memoir but also as a work to inspire everyone to try new things regardless of expertise. (Mar.) —Publishers Weekly