A native Oregonian of Polish descent, Catherine A. Hamilton spent several years as a freelance writer. Her articles and poems have appeared in The Sarasota Herald Tribune, The Oregonian, The Catholic Sentinel, and The Polish American Journal. She is the author of a chapter, “Katherine Graczyk”; in Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation. Edited by Richard C. Lukas, pp.31-37, (University Press of Kansas, 2004). Her debut novel, Victoria’s War, is now available: Plain View Press (2020).
Hamilton lives in the Northwest with her husband.
A native Oregonian of Polish decent, I was born in the small town of Sweet Home, Oregon. After finishing high school, I moved to Portland where I graduated from Lewis and Clark College in 1984 with a Master’s degree in psychology. I spent 12 years as a psychotherapist, publishing over a dozen articles in my field. I’ve presented papers at the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting in New York City, and one article was featured in the NYT the following day. After joining a writing group and trying my hand at fiction, my stories, articles, and poems were published in magazines and newspapers—including the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the Oregonian, the Catholic Sentinel, the Dziennik Związkowy (the oldest Polish newspaper in America), and the Polish American Journal. I closed my private practice and started writing fiction fulltime. My debut novel Victoria’s War will be published on June 2, 2020, by Plain View Press.
A local talk-news shows interviewed me on radio and television about a piece I wrote for Brainstorm Magazine, and I was also interviewed for TV after the death of Pope John Paul II. I had met the pope in his private library while on pilgrimage in Rome, and had presented him with some of my work. Five of my poems have been translated and published in Poland. Nine Days—Poems Remembering Pope John II (2015), a collection of my poetry is available on Amazon.
I also have a chapter of an eyewitness account in Poland during WWII in Forgotten Survivors (University Press of Kansas, 2004).
Combining my passion for writing and love for cooking, I post some of my cooking on Instagram. I’m also a guest chef for Meatless-Friday Meals on Catholicmom.com. You can read and try out my recipes here on my website.
I post my published writing, things Polish, and cooking adventures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. I’d love to have you follow me on social media. You can do that by clicking the links below.
I live in Portland, Oregon, with my husband of thirty years and am blessed with five stepchildren and four grandsons.