Writing

Creative non-fiction/lyric essays

Catherine’s work-in-progress, a lyrical work of creative non-fiction, is about catastrophes or perils she has experienced, as seen through the lens of today’s world. Settings include the Arctic, an intentional rural community, a circus, a hospital and a city street. Tinged with lyricism, humour and hope, these essays investigate mortality, memory, the mind and the body.

She was short-listed for one of her essays, Instructions for Living, in the Narrative Non-fiction category of the 2024 City of Melbourne writing awards.

Her essay, ‘The Red Coat’, was published in Westerly, Issue 69.1, August 2024.

Her essay, ‘Two hundred and sixty-two days’ was published in Meniscus online literary journal, Issue 2, 2022

‘From candles to chocolate’ was published in the anthology A Remarkable Absence of Passion, Nora McManus (ed), Dove, 1991

Fiction

Two of Catherine’s short stories will be published in an anthology, Stories of Place: ///Zinc. level. blindfold by the US publisher, Black Rose Writing, on 10 April, 2025. More information here.

Catherine’s novel-in-progress, Unspooled (working title), is a contemporary literary fiction work about a queer couple, Nat and Francesca, with a three-year-old daughter, Elly. As Nat deals with the revelation her biological father may be Iranian, the couple struggle with the tension between expressing their own identity and compromising for the sake of their relationship. As conflict develops between them, Nat risks losing both Francesca and Elly.

Poetry

  • ‘Following’ in Going Down Swinging, 1990.

  • ‘Untitled’ in Redoubt, Issue 7/8, Canberra College of Advanced Education, 1989

  • ‘I believe in Sweat’ in Women’s Circus: Leaping off the Edge, 1997

  • ‘The Song of the Returning’ in Visible Ink anthology, RMIT, 1990

  • ‘Tiger Balm’ in Outhouse anthology, RMIT, 1990

  • Bead Fireworks (a small booklet of 11 poems published with Judith Zarrella’s Casualty), editor Judith Rodriguez, RMIT, 1989

Fellowships

2022 Varuna Writer’s Space Online Fellowship for novel-in-progress.

2023 KSP Writing Fellowship for creative non-fiction essays.

2025 Gunyah Artist-in-Residence program with Jodi Vial, Betty O’Neill and Josepha Dietrich.

The writing community

I feel privileged to be engaged with the Australian writing community. A big thank you to mentors and manuscript assessors, Ashley Hay, Nadine Davidoff and Kate Ryan. I am very grateful to Sarah Sentilles, for her insights, support, warmth and for the testimonial on the Welcome page. Through a connection with Sarah, I have appreciated the support of writers like Kate Mildenhall, Ashley Kalagian Blunt, Anne Myers, Ruth Melville, Jillian Langhammer, Annie Keely, Clara Brack, Suzanne Brown, Janenne Willis and Julie Perrin.

Big thanks to Shokufeh Kavani, E.N., N.Z. and S.S. for their warmth and openness, for sharing their knowledge of Iranian culture and their insightful feedback on the Iranian chapters of my novel.

Thanks also to writers from the Varuna alumni group such as Jane Messer, Beth Spencer, Anne Butt, Meg Mooney, Madeline Oliver and Teresa Savage. And I am grateful to my life-saving Melbourne workshop group: Maryrose Cuskelly, Marilyn Miller, Chris Ringrose and Trish Bolton for sharing manuscripts, pizzas and drinks and for pivoting onto Zoom during Covid.

Thanks to Jax Jacki Brown for their support, inspiring strength and commitment to the LGBTIQA+ and disability communities. I also appreciated the insights of Sam Elkin and Ros Bellamy who read early extracts of the novel.

Nathan Scolaro, thanks a lot for help with this website.

After a 2020 Curtis Brown Creative (UK) online course, Edit and Pitch your Novel, I connected with a wonderful group of international writers who I met in person in UK in June, 2023. Congratulations to Niamh McAnally and Ben Tufnell, the first two in the group to get their books published. The anthology of our short stories, Stories of Place: ///Zinc, Level, Blindfold, will be published on 10 April 2025. Thanks to Anne Freeman for her thoughtful response to this anthology and for joining me for a conversation at the Melbourne launch. (See Events page.)

As my engagement with the Australian writing community grows, so too does this list! Thanks to the Writing Circle (mainly based in Perth) with writers such as Melinda Tognini, Louise Allan, Melissa Ashley, Annie de Monchaux, Narelle Hill, Anne Harris, Karen Hollands, Annie Wilson and Rachael Mead. Also to the Varuna Memoir Masterclass of 2024 with the wonderful Kris Kneen and my supportive writing colleagues, Betty O’Neill, Josepha Dietrich, Clare Boyd-Macrae, Jodi Vial, Nicola Walker and Gabriella Coslovich.