Cathryn Hankla is the author of over a dozen books in three genres, the most recent of which is the memoir Lost Places: On Losing and Finding Home and poetry collections Galaxies and Great Bear. Two collections are forthcoming from Mercer University Press: Not Xanadu (2022) and Immortal Stuff (2023). After a four-decade teaching career, Cathryn Hankla recently retired from her tenure home, Hollins University's Jackson Center for Creative Writing, to write, paint, and travel.
Cathryn grew up in the natural environment of Southern Appalachia, with habitats that span the Blue Ridge to the Cumberland Plateau, which is one of the most biodiverse on earth.
Like her native home in the Southwest Mountains of Virginia, Cathryn explores her journey through the local landscapes with incredible insights, always questing for answers, weaving an elegant, philosophical collection of essays, prose, and novels.