Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman (born 1968) is an American author of books for children and adults.

Biography

Newman attended Fieldston High School in the Bronx and graduated from Amherst College in 1990. Newman earned a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz."Catherine Newman (1968–)." ''Something About the Author'', edited by Jennifer Stock. Vol. 331, Gale, 2019. pp. 169–170. ''Gale Literature: Something About the Author''. Accessed 1 May 2023.

Newman has worked in hospice care. Her favorite book is Adrienne Rich's ''The Dream of a Common Language''.

Newman lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. She is Jewish.

Writing career

Newman has written for ''Taste'' and ''The Washington Post''.

Her memoir ''Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family'' (Penguin, 2005) received a starred review from ''Publishers Weekly'', which called it "honest, tender and funny". ''Kirkus Reviews'' said, "what sustains the reader is the steady humor displayed in Newman's benignly wacko voice, crisp and always ready to deflate".

''Kirkus'' called her second memoir, ''Catastrophic Happiness: Finding Joy in Childhood's Messy Years'' (Little, Brown & Co., 2016), "an overly sentimental book".

Her adult fiction debut was ''We All Want Impossible Things'' (Harper, 2022). It tells the story of two longtime friends as one of them is dying of ovarian cancer. Newman was inspired to write it following the 2015 death of a good friend. ''We All Want Impossible Things'' received a starred review from ''Kirkus Reviews'' that read, "Newman perfectly captures the beauty and burden of caring for someone in their final moments" and "a warm and remarkably funny book about death and caregiving that will make readers laugh through their tears". ''Publishers Weekly'' called it a "moving adult debut".

Newman's most recent novel, "Sandwich", was published in 2024, again by Harper. Although on the surface it is about a summer week that an extended family spends on the Cape, it is really a touching and funny meditation on family and all that means. The New York Times says that "if you want to laugh out loud, tear up and rush to pull out a book in the 35 seconds between subway stops, this sweet, savory, tenderhearted 'Sandwich' fits the bill."

In addition to her works for adults, Newman has written several books for children that were published by Storey Publishing, including ''Stitch Camp: 18 Crafty Projects for Kids & Tweens'' (2017; cowritten with Nicole Blum), ''How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn before You're Grown Up'' (2020), ''What Can I Say? A Kid's Guide to Super-Useful Social Skills to Help You Get Along and Express Yourself: Speak Up, Speak Out, Talk about Hard Things, and Be a Good Friend'' (2022).

Selected works

* ''Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family''. Penguin Books, 2005.
* ''It's a Boy''. (Contributor of "Pretty Baby".) Seal Press, 2006.
* ''Catastrophic Happiness: Finding Joy in Childhood's Messy Years''. Little, Brown & Co., 2016.
* ''Stitch Camp: 18 Crafty Projects for Kids & Tweens''. (By Nicole Blum and Catherine Newman.) Storey Publishing, 2017.
* ''How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn before You're Grown Up''. Storey Publishing, 2020.
* ''What Can I Say? A Kid's Guide to Super-Useful Social Skills to Help You Get Along and Express Yourself: Speak Up, Speak Out, Talk about Hard Things, and Be a Good Friend''. Storey Publishing, 2022.
* ''We All Want Impossible Things''. Harper, 2022.

References

External links

*
* Newman's
Ben and Birdy
' blog

Catherine Newman
on Goodreads

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Catherine
1968 births
Living people
Amherst College alumni
University of California, Santa Cruz alumni
Writers from the Bronx
Jewish American children's writers
Jewish American memoirists
Jewish American non-fiction writers
Jewish American novelists
Jewish women writers
American non-fiction children's writers
American women non-fiction writers
21st-century American memoirists
American women novelists
21st-century American novelists
Writers from Amherst, Massachusetts