Catherine Taylor Reading

Catherine Taylor is a writer and editor who works on a wide range of nonfiction forms–from documentary and literary journalism to lyric essays, hybrid-genre writing, critical theory, and poetics. She is the author of Apart, a hybrid-genre book of memoir and political history about South Africa (Ugly Duckling Presse) and of Giving Birth: A Journey Into the World of Mothers and Midwives (Penguin Putnam) winner of the Lamaze International Birth Advocate Award. Taylor worked as a producer, writer, and researcher on a number of documentary film projects in New York City including The Exiles which won an Emmy award for historical programming, and she was a Co-founder and Producer of The Human Rights Watch Film Festival. She is also a Founding Editor of Essay Press, an independent press dedicated to publishing innovative essays in book form. 

Her newest work, "Inanimate Subjects," considers attack operations by U.S. Military drones as extensions of traditions in puppetry and performance. 

Professor Taylor's essays, poetry, and reviews have appeared in many literary journals including Seneca Review, The Colorado Review,Jacket2, ActionYes, The Laurel Review, Xantippe, Postmodern Culture, Hotel Amerika, and Witness. Her work has been supported by fellowships and residencies at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and The Millay Colony.