Staff writer

Office phone: 757-446-2504

Email: denise.batts@pilotonline.com

Denise Watson Batts is a member of a four-member team of writers who specialize in narrative writing.

Denise Watson Batts wrote her first story on the underside of her parents’ wooden coffee table when she was thigh-high. She likes to believe she’s gotten better since then.

She’s been a staffer for the The Virginian-Pilot for 15 years, and spent a year at The St. Petersburg Times in Florida. Even though she’s written about the famous -– Betty Friedan -– and the infamous -– John and Lorena Bobbitt -– she prefers stories of everyday life and everyday people, such as an afternoon at a Girl Scout summer camp, a high school drama team’s quest to stage one of Broadway’s toughest shows, a man who still repairs typewriters in the computer age. She’s won regional and national honors for feature writing.

Batts is a 1990 graduate of Norfolk State University and grew up in Norfolk. She is married with two children.