Catherine Petroski

Catherine Petroski (born 1939), born Catherine Groom in St. Louis, Missouri, is an American writer and photographer.

Catherine Petroski
Born	Catherine Groom 1939 (age 84–85) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Occupation	Writer photographer
Nationality	American
Alma mater	MacMurray College University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Spouse	Henry Petroski (died 2023)
Children	2

Life

She holds degrees from MacMurray College and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has taught writing and literature at Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and aboard ships at sea. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle, the Authors Guild, and SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research.

William H. Gass described her writing as "quiet, lyrical, deeply meditative" prose from which a "lovely and mysterious" meaning emerges.... "It is a process that is wonderful to watch." Novelist Hilma Wolitzer wrote that Petroski "understands perfectly the world of childhood and makes the reader see the ways in which we become adults."

Maritime historian Joan Druett described A Bride's Passage as "a superbly written, formidably researched retelling of Susan Hathorn's honeymoon voyage through the pages of her diary." Publishers Weekly's starred review described A Bride's Passage as "a compelling contribution to maritime literature and the lives of Victorian-age women...."

She lives in Durham, North Carolina.^[1] Her husband was the engineer and author Henry Petroski; they had children Karen and Stephen.

Awards

She has been awarded National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in Creative Writing, residency fellowships at the Corporation of Yaddo, and has been a Scholar and a Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. She won the Texas Institute of Letters Prize in short fiction, and her biography of Susan Hathorn, A Bride's Passage: Susan Hathorn's Year Under Sail, won the John Lyman Prize for Biography and was hailed as "a valuable social history of a maritime family in mid-19th-century New England."

Writings

Books

• Gravity and Other Stories. Fiction International. 1981. ISBN 978-0-931362-05-7.^[2]
• Beautiful My Mane in the Wind. Houghton Mifflin. 1983. ISBN 978-0-395-33074-6.^[3]
• The Summer that Lasted Forever. Houghton Mifflin. 1984. ISBN 978-0-395-35388-2.^[4]
• A Bride's Passage: Susan Hathorn's Year Under Sail. UPNE. 1997. ISBN 978-1-55553-297-0.^[5]

Photography

• The House with Sixteen Handmade Doors: A Tale of Architectural Choice and Craftsmanship, by Henry Petroski. W. W. Norton, 2014. ISBN 978-0393242041

Anthology appearances

• The Faber Book of Contemporary Stories about Childhood, Lorrie Moore (ed) Faber and Faber (May 5, 1997) ISBN 978-0-571-17083-8^[6]
• I Know Some Things: Stories About Childhood by Contemporary Writers, Lorrie Moore (ed) Faber & Faber (June 1993) ISBN 978-0-571-19802-3^[7]
• Jo's Girls Christian McEwen (ed) Beacon Press (June 30, 1997) ISBN 978-0-8070-6211-1^[8]
• The PEN Short Story Collection Alice Adams (ed) Ballantine Books (October 12, 1985) ISBN 978-0-345-32126-8^[9]
• Stories for Free Children Letty Cottin Pogrebin (ed) Mcgraw-Hill (September 1983) ISBN 978-0-07-050398-4^[10]
• Prize Stories: Texas Institute of Letters Marshall Terry (ed) Still Point Press (March 1986) ISBN 978-0-933841-04-8^[11]
• William Abrahams, ed. (1989). Prize Stories 1989: The O. Henry Awards. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-24633-0.

References

1. "Catherine Petroski | Directory of Writers | Poets & Writers". Pw.org. 2008-06-09. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
2. Gravity and Other Stories (December 1981). Gravity and Other Stories: Catherine Petroski: 9780931362057: Amazon.com: Books. Fiction International. ISBN 0931362059.
3. Beautiful My Mane in the Wind (1983-02-23). Beautiful My Mane in the Wind: Catherine Petroski, Robert Andrew Parker: 9780395330746: Amazon.com: Books. Horizon Book Promotions. ISBN 978-0-395-33074-6. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
4. The summer that lasted forever (1999-10-31). The summer that lasted forever: Catherine Petroski: 9780395353882: Amazon.com: Books. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0395353882.
5. A Bride's Passage: Susan Hathorn's Year Under Sail (1997). A Bride's Passage: Susan Hathorn's Year Under Sail: Catherine Petroski: 9781555532970: Amazon.com: Books. ISBN 1555532977.
6. The Faber Book of Contemporary Stories About Childhood (1997-05-05). The Faber Book of Contemporary Stories About Childhood: Lorrie Moore: 9780571170838: Amazon.com: Books. Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571170838.
7. Moore, Lorrie (1993). I Know Some Things: Stories about Childhood by Contemporary Writers: Lorrie Moore: 9780571198023: Amazon.com: Books. Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571198023.
8. &#8250 Christian McEwen (1997). Jo's Girls: Tomboy Tales of High Adventure,True Grit,and Real Life: Christian McEwen: 0046442062114: Amazon.com: Books. Beacon Press. ISBN 0807062111.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
9. The Available Press/PEN Short Story Collection (1985-10-12). The Available Press/PEN Short Story Collection: Alice Adams: 9780345321268: Amazon.com: Books. ISBN 034532126X.
10. Julia L. Mickenberg. Stories for Free Children (Mcgraw-Hill Paperbacks): Letty Cottin Pogrebin: 9780070503984: Amazon.com: Books. ISBN 0070503982.
11. Prize Stories, Texas Institute of Letters (1986). Prize Stories,Texas Institute of Letters: Marshall Terry: 9780933841048: Amazon.com: Books. Still Point Press. ISBN 0933841043.

External links

• Something about the Author
• Contemporary Authors