Books – fiction – nonfiction – contact
Summer of the Cicadas is for sale now!
“This bleak, slim novel packs a great deal of insight into depression, desire, and substance abuse from the perspective of a gay woman struggling to move forward in her life (“I still want to die sometimes, but I’m better at pretending”), and the merciless cicadas make for a moving metaphor of the wreckage Jessica must face and overcome. Catherine’s frightening vision makes for a worthy exercise in small-town horror.” – Publishers Weekly
Chelsea Catherine is a writer living in St. Petersburg, FL. After graduating from the University of Tampa with their MFA in creative writing, they moved to the Florida Keys where they wrote their first book and began studying nonfiction.
Most recently, they won the Mary C Mohr award for nonfiction through the Southern Indiana Review and their novel, Summer of the Cicadas, won the Quill Prose Award from Red Hen Press. Chelsea is a nonbinary lesbian and has been writing since the age of eight. They signed with Mary C. Moore of Kimberley Cameron & Associates in 2020.
Check out their blog at Medium!
Awards and Recognition
- Editor’s Pick, Raymond Carver Fiction Contest, 2016 (Carve Magazine)
- PEN Short Story Prize Nominee, 2016 (for Mostly Sunny with a Slight Chance of Rain)
- Sterling Watson MFA Fellowship, 2017 (Eckerd College)
- Unsung Hero Award, 2017 (Community Foundation of the FL Keys)
- Anne McKee Artists Award Grant Recipient, 2017
- University of Tampa Alumni Reader, 2017
- Clay Reynolds Novella Winner, 2017 (for Blindsided)
- Katherine Anne Porter Short Fiction Prize Finalist, 2018 (for ISABEL and other stories)
- Art Farm Writer’s Residency, 2018
- Red Hen Press: Quill Prose Award Winner 2018 (for Summer of the Cicadas)
- Southern Indiana Review: Mary C. Mohr Nonfiction Award Winner, 2018 (for Quiet with the Hurt)
- Semi-Finalist for the Big Moose Prize through Black Lawrence Press 2020 (for Dogfight)
- Shortlist for Gulf Stream Literary Magazine summer competition, 2020 (for Love, Kiss, Touch)
- Emerging Artist Grant from Creative Pinellas, 2020
