Catherine Jagoe is a poet, essayist and translator based in Madison, Wisconsin.
She was born in Britain and has a PhD in Spanish Literature from the University of Cambridge. Her book Bloodroot (2016) won the Settlement House American Poetry Prize, the Council for Wisconsin Writers’ Edna Meudt Award and an Outstanding Work of Poetry award from the Wisconsin Library Association. She also has three poetry chapbooks, Casting Off, News from the North and What the Sad Say. Her poems have been featured by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac and on Poetry Daily. Her essays have appeared in The Pushcart Prize XL 2016 anthology, The Gettysburg Review, Chautauqua, TriQuarterly, American Athenaeum, and Ninth Letter, as well as on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Wisconsin Life” series, and earned a Notable Essay citation in the 2019 Best American Essays. She has been awarded writing residencies at artist colonies in the US including Jentel, PLAYA, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Write On Door County and Shake Rag Alley.
Catherine Jagoe
She writes about the intersection between our outer and inner lives in their many forms—domestic, natural and emotional. As an immigrant and translator who has lived in several different countries (England, Spain, France, Nigeria, the U.S.), she is fascinated by the peculiarities of different landscapes and languages, and by the notion of home—the homes we lose and the homes we create.
She pays close attention to the natural world wherever she finds herself, and spends as much time outdoors as she can.