Catherine McLaughlin

Catherine McLaughlin grew up in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She received graduate degrees at the University College Dublin and Bowling Green State University. She has taught English and writing for 40 years at UMASS Dartmouth and Framingham State University. As a graduate student at Bowling Green State University, Catherine was mentored by James Baldwin, author of The Fire Next Time, writer-in-residence at the time and was assigned to be his assistant. They developed a friendship that lasted the last ten years of his life. A published poet and an artist, McLaughlin is professor emerita of Framingham State University. In 2015 Catherine published a book of poetry called Under a Circus Moon. Blue Collars is her first attempt to delve into fiction. Catherine designed the cover artwork of Blue Collars.

Having grown up in New Bedford, living and teaching in various places for over 35 years as well as living abroad in Dublin, Ireland for a time, she retired from teaching and now lives in the village of Padanaram Massachusetts with her two cats. Catherine has two grown children. Returning to this area felt to her like coming home again.