Biography

Catherine Jenkins is an established, Toronto-based writer currently working on fiction, non-fiction and poetry projects. Her first poetry collection, blood, love & boomerangs (1999) and her novel Swimming in the Ocean (2002), were both published by Insomniac Press and her work has appeared in many notable journals in Canada and abroad. She has toured extensively, performing over seventy-five readings in thirty centres in Canada and the US.

Catherine is currently working on a non-fiction resource entitled, The Wisdom of Aging Gracefully, as well as On the Thames on a Tuesday Afternoon, a work of literary non-fiction. Additionally, she is revising her second novel, a gender-bender romantic comedy called Pairs & Artichoke Hearts and compiling her second poetry collection.

Catherine was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and spent much of her childhood travelling, until her family settled in Peterborough, Ontario. She holds an Honours B.A. in Philosophy and Cultural Studies, as well as an M.A. in Methodologies for the Study of Western Culture and History (since renamed Theory, Culture and Politics), both from Trent University. For many years she managed the Sam the Record Man store on George Street in Peterborough. After moving to Ottawa in 1993, she returned to write in a cabin in the woods on the Kawartha Lakes, before moving to Toronto in 1996.

From 2000-2009, she owned and operated Solidus Communication, providing editing services to publishing houses, businesses and private clients. In Fall 2008, she returned to school and is now nearing completion of her PhD in Communication & Culture in this joint Ryerson-York program.