Catfish Pond Woman
Bianca McCarty
The Mississippi Delta is a hard place to be.
A world of apocalyptic snowstorms, teen moonshiners, and bulletproof roaches, of honky tonks and kudzu, Dollar General and a predatory Reverend. Told across eleven evocative stories, Catfish Pond Woman explores the isolating experience of growing up, asking: where do we go when home no longer feels like home?
Bianca McCarty’s striking debut is a tender, surreal depiction of a young woman—curious, wry, and rebellious—searching for herself in the wake of loss, amid a splintered family and a stifling small town.
Bianca McCarty is a poet and fiction writer from Madison, Mississippi. She is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Alabama majoring in Biology. Her poetry has been published in the Marr’s Field Journal. In 2022, she received the Michael Dalton Goodson Memorial Prize in Poetry for her poem, “Father of Waters | Burning Mississippi.” In her free time, she can be found working in her research lab, journaling, or taking walks with friends.
