Catherine Petroski (born 1939), born Catherine Groom in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, is an American writer and photographer.

Life

She holds degrees from

MacMurray College MacMurray College was a private college in Jacksonville, Illinois, United States. Its enrollment in fall 2015 was 570. Founded in 1846, the college closed in May 2020. History Although founded in 1846 by a group of Methodist clergymen as the ...

and the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. She has taught writing and literature at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

, and aboard ships at sea. She is a member of the

National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization (501(c) organization, 501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the N ...

, the

Authors Guild The Authors Guild is the United States' oldest and largest professional organization for writers and provides advocacy on issues of free expression and copyright protection. Since its founding in 1912 as the Authors League of America, it has coun ...

, and SABR, the

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and statistical record of baseball. The organization was founded in Cooperstown, New York, on Au ...

William H. Gass William Howard Gass (July 30, 1924 – December 6, 2017) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and philosophy professor. He wrote three novels, three collections of short stories, a collection of novellas, and seven vol ...

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 ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

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 Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

. Her husband was the

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and author

Henry Petroski Henry Petroski (February 6, 1942 – June 14, 2023) was an American engineer specializing in failure analysis. A professor both of civil engineering and history at Duke University, he was also a prolific author. Petroski wrote over a dozen books ...

; they had children Karen and Stephen.

Awards

She has been awarded

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

Fellowships in

Creative Writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

, residency fellowships at the Corporation of

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

, and has been a Scholar and a Fellow at the

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by ''The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most ...

. 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 Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians. Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...

of a maritime family in mid-19th-century New England."

Writings

"History Through Paper Windows", ''Duke Magazine'', 1997

Books

* * * *

Photography

* ''The House with Sixteen Handmade Doors: A Tale of Architectural Choice and Craftsmanship'', by Henry Petroski. W. W. Norton, 2014.

Anthology appearances

* ''The Faber Book of Contemporary Stories about Childhood'', Lorrie Moore (ed) Faber and Faber (May 5, 1997) * ''I Know Some Things: Stories About Childhood by Contemporary Writers'', Lorrie Moore (ed) Faber & Faber (June 1993) * ''Jo's Girls'' Christian McEwen (ed) Beacon Press (June 30, 1997) * ''The PEN Short Story Collection'' Alice Adams (ed) Ballantine Books (October 12, 1985) * ''Stories for Free Children'' Letty Cottin Pogrebin (ed) Mcgraw-Hill (September 1983) * ''Prize Stories: Texas Institute of Letters'' Marshall Terry (ed) Still Point Press (March 1986) *

References

External links

Review of ''Gravity and Other Stories''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petroski, Catherine 1939 births Living people American women writers MacMurray College alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Duke University faculty University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty American women academics 21st-century American women