Catherine Taylor is the author of Apart, a hybrid-genre book of memoir and political history about South Africa (forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Presse), and of Giving Birth: A Journey Into the World of Mothers and Midwives (Penguin Putnam) a book Library Journal called “a delightfully readable blend of scholarship, exposé, and storytelling that is likely to become a classic.” 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.

Professor Taylor's essays, poetry, and reviews have appeared in many literary journals including The Colorado Review, Jacket2, The Laurel Review, Xantippe, Postmodern Culture, Hotel Amerika and Witness, and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is interested in a wide range of nonfiction forms–from documentary work and literary journalism to critical theory and lyric essays.

Areas

• Nonfiction Writing
• The Essay
• Cultural Studies
• Documentary Poetics

Degrees

• Ph.D. English, Duke University
• B.A. College Scholar in Literature and Classics, Cornell University

Selected Publications

Books

• Apart (a mixed genre or lyric documentary book on South Africa and family). Forthcoming in the Dossier Series from Ugly Duckling Presse.

• Giving Birth: a Journey into the World of Mothers and Midwives (Penguin Putnam).

Essays and Articles

• "Take Your Time: The Ethics of the Event in Rachel Blau DuPlessis' 'Drafts'," Jacket2. Winter 2012.
• "Protest," "Arboretum," and "It Begins With a Glance," (Nominated for a Pushcart Prize), Hotel Amerika. 2010.
• “Duffer’s Drift,” Witness. Winter 2008. 
• “Robben Island,” The Laurel Review. Fall 2008.
• “Bad Family,” ActionYes. Winter 2008.
• “Open Studios: Rachel Blau DuPlessis’ Blue Studios," Postmodern Culture. Winter 2008.
• “Mother Country,” Nightsun. Winter 2007.
• “Cape Town Journals,” Colorado Review. Fall 2007. 
• “Trace,” Xantippe. Spring 2007.
• “An Interview with Susan Stewart,” Quarter After Eight. Spring 2006.

Selected Conference Presentations

• "Contemplation and Action: Time and the Work of Rachel Blau DuPlessis," American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Vancouver, 2011.
• "The Pleasures of Research," Nonfiction Now. The University of Iowa, 2010.
• "The State of the Essay in the Publishing Marketplace," Welcome Table Press Conference, Fordham University, Lincoln Center, NY, April 2010.
• “Mock Docs, Fakes, and Hoaxes,” Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), Denver, April 2010.
• “Cities, Sounds, Translations, Frequencies,” Panel Chair. MLA, Philadelphia, 2009.
• “Protest Memoirs.” AWP Conference, Chicago, Winter 2009. 
• “Women Essayists.” AWP Conference, New York, Winter 2008.
• "Recitative and Reprise: Contemporary Returns to Reznikoff's Testimony." MLA, Chicago, 2007. 
• “Beyond A Degraded Realism: Documentary Innovations.” MLA, Chicago, 2007.  
• “Transgeneric Nonfiction and the Rhetoric of the Gap.” ACLA, Puebla, Mexico, 2007.
• “Mapping Creative Non-Fiction.” MLA, Philadelphia, 2006. 
• “Fragments of the Truth: Rhetorics of Genocide.” MLA, Philadelphia, December, 2006.
• “Mixing Memoir and Political History: Identity, Race, and Nation,” Invited Lecture. All Africa House Lecture Series, The University of Cape Town, August 2006.
• “Doing Documentary Work with Diverse Communities.”  Duke University Center for Documentary  
   Studies. Durham, NC February 2005.
•  “Hiding in the Lyric: Autobiographical Erasures and Complicities.” Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), San Francisco. March 2005.