Author: Catherine Carter

A stone engraving of Geoffrey Chaucer's head surrounded by a wreath

Better Late

According to my medievalist spouse, Geoffrey Chaucer entered into the prime of his literary career, which has spanned the intervening five centuries, around the age of 40.  Presumably he was writing some things before that, and we can quibble about whether to count as major The Book of the Duchess (medievalist spouse:  “are you mad? …

Cover image for Salem's Lot, The Haunting of Hill House, and Can Poetry Matter?

Books for the Beltane Season

Diana’s e-mail that Ploughshares was interested in blogs about summer reading was a happy occasion, and not only because it preempted that sometimes-desperate scrabble for appropriate blog topics, as in (because I also teach grammar and usage) “Brian!  Would anybody read it if I blogged about the semi-colon versus the colon?”  (Answer:  look of pity.) …

Photo of a tornado and lighting strike in a small village

Chandlery

Last week, we had our first probably-twister since coming to live in beautiful Cullowhee; in the mountains, it’s hard for a tornado to get up a good whirl, and by and large our weather is so temperate we’re ashamed to complain about it.  (I also felled my first tree, dropping it almost exactly where I…

Image of a man's silhouette against a picture window

Second Person

Like many another writer doesn’t precisely work in creative writing, I’ve spent a lot of time teaching composition…so let’s just start with a shout-out to all the contingent labor teaching composition on a piecework basis, year in and decade out, summer and winter, usually for under $30,000 a year, sometimes way under. Thanks. Moving on…