Catherine Marenghi

A native of Massachusetts, Catherine Marenghi is the author of Breaking Bread: Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2020) and Glad Farm: A Memoir (Tate Publishing, 2016). An award-winning poet, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her poem “First Day of Kindergarten.” The acclaimed poets Richard Blanco and Jennifer Clement separately selected her poems as first-place winners of poetry contests sponsored by Crossroads Magazine. Her poems also twice received first-place honors from the Academy of American Poets University and College Poetry Prize program. Her work has appeared in international publications including Sisyphus, Bangalore Review, Ekphrastic Review, Peregrine Journal, Crossroads, Solamente en San Miguel, Italian Americana, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Phi Kappa Phi Forum, and Conclave. Her memoir Glad Farm, which President Jimmy Carter called “inspiring,” tells of a life rooted in poverty on a former gladiolus farm, and the power of a house to change our destiny. She has served on the board of the San Miguel Poetry Café and also co-founded Poetry Mesa, an international poetry community, along with poet Judyth Hill.

Her newest book, Our Good Name (Arch Street Press, 2022) was just released. A historical novel, it tells the multigenerational tale of a Northern Italian family that leaves behind their beloved Apennine village in the 1890s to find a better life in the gritty, industrial heart of Massachusetts.

Catherine will read from her submitted chapbook entitled Sky Burial and Other Love Poems.