Literary Events (Page 27)

Mary Katherine Wainwright and Catherine Marenghi

By Carole Schor

The March 12 Literary Sala presents beloved writer and educator, Mary Katherine Wainwright, and award-winning poet and memoirist, Catherine Marenghi.

We regret that Lawrence Baines was unable to fly here and had to cancel.

Mary Katherine Wainwright

Mary Katherine grew up as a young woman in the 50s in the Deep South land of Jim Crow and “pork chop” politics. She fulfilled the American Dream of getting married and raising four children, and then took off in a completely different direction by earning her PhD at age 40. Mary Katherine devoted her education, her thesis, and her eventual career to the literature of powerful African-American women: Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and the women of the Harlem Renaissance.

Her new book, entitled En Route, vividly evokes the era she lived through. We see her discovery of the library and books at the tender age of seven, the awakening to injustice and racism in the Birmingham of 1963, the birth of the Women’s Liberation movement with her newfound freedom of being able to divorce and travel the world on her own, attending workshops and learning to write from some of the most renowned teachers of our time. Mary Katherine is a true renaissance woman herself.

Catherine Marenghi

Catherine Marenghi is an award-winning poet and memoirist. She is the author of Glad Farm: A Memoir, which President Jimmy Carter called “inspiring.”  It tells of her childhood in a one-room farmhouse, one of a family of seven, on land where her parents once had a gladiolus farm. It is a powerful story of poverty and resilience, and the power of a house to shape our destiny. Her new poetry book, Breaking Bread, was published last month by Finishing Line Press. She is currently working on an historic fiction based on the lives of her Italian immigrant grandparents. She was twice first-place winner of the annual poetry contest sponsored by Crossroads Magazine here in San Miguel, and twice received first-place honors from the Academy of American Poets while studying at Tufts University. She has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals in the U.S. and Mexico. She studied at Tufts University, where she received her M.A. and B.A. degrees in English. A native of Boston, she is now permanently and happily installed in San Miguel. She credits San Miguel, its Literary Sala, and its rich cultural community for giving her the support, artistic freedom, and inspiration to publish both of her books and to continue developing her craft.

Join us at Casa de la Noche. Calle Organos #19, on Thursday, March 12 at 5 PM. Admission is $100 pesos for members, 50 pesos for non-members.