Catherine Abbey Hodges
“Empty Me Full”
“Empty Me Full is an invitation to intimate conversation with a wise and affectionate seeker. But Catherine Abbey Hodges is no common questioner. Hers is a wit-laced and vulnerable wondering. Exhilarated by relationship with human, animal, earth and sky, in language honed with care and cadence, her surprising turns of thought and discovery deepen our shared humanity. Without being sentimental, the book is rich with sentiment. Without dictating belief, the collection inspires reverence for the greater-than-human. In poems that turn grief to awe and sadness to wonder, the poet celebrates our stunning, imperfect lives.”
– Barbara Rockman, author of: “to cleave”
About the Author:
Catherine Abbey Hodges is the author of In a Rind of Light (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2020); Instead of Sadness, selected by Dan Gerber for the 2015 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize from Gunpowder Press; Raft of Days (Gunpowder Press, 2017); and the chapbooks A Spell for What Comes Next (Miramar Editions, 2018) and All the While (Finishing Line Press, 2006).
Her poems appear widely in venues including Narrative, The Southern Review, Tar River Poetry, Miramar, The American Journal of Poetry, Connotation Press, Cider Press Review, Atticus Review, SWWIM, Gyroscope Review, and Chicago Quarterly Review. They’ve been anthologized, featured on The Writer’s Almanac and Verse Daily, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Orison Anthology, and Best of the Net. Catherine serves as a staff reader for SWWIM and an advisory editor for Anacapa Review. With David Starkey, she is co-creator and -director of Canyon Wren Writing.
An award-winning teacher, Catherine taught English at Porterville College for 20 years before retiring in 2021. She writes, edits, teaches privately, and collaborates with musician and labyrinth-maker Rob Hodges in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada.
Her Book on Amazon