Cat Winters's Blog

I'm thrilled to announce that two of my brand-new poems, "Hope" and "An Octopus Dwells Inside My Head," will appear in the YA poetry anthology You're Never Too Much: Poems for Every Emotion . The collection of poetry, edited by Charlie Castelletti, will release from First Ink/Pan Macmillan on September 4, 2025. 

Pre-orders for the book are available now.

The hardcover edition of the anthology is releasing in the UK, but an ebook edition will also be available.

Here's a synopsis of the book from the ...

Hello, dear readers!

This week Door Is a Jar Literary Magazine published four more of my poems in Issue 34 Spring 2025. Huge thanks to editor Maxwell Bauman for acquiring my work!

I’ll be reading one of the new poems, “Stealing from Children,” at Door Is a Jar’s virtual Spring Contributor Reading Event this Thursday, March 6, at 6:00 pm ET/3:00 pm PT.

Here's the link to the reading.

On Monday I traveled to the Oregon State Capitol to testify in support of Senate Bill 1098, Oregon’s Freedom ...

For a little while longer, you can head into select bookstores across the U.S. to find copies of Issue 33 Winter 2024 of Door Is a Jar Literary Magazine, which includes my poem "A Moth with Hummingbird Wings." It sounds like this issue will be on newstands through February 2025. You can also order copies on the magazine's website. 

Starting February 1, 2025, you'll be able to pre-order Issue 34 Spring 2025 of Door Is a Jar, in which you'll be able to find four more of my poems, including one that...

What a tremendous honor to see my poem "A Moth with Hummingbird Wings" in the pages of  Issue 33 Winter 2024 of Door Is A Jar Literary Magazine, which published this week! 

The publication comes in both print and digital formats, and you can find copies in several Barnes & Nobles and other U.S. bookstores . Please visit the Door Is a Jar website for more info. 
Thanks to Door Is a Jar Literary Magazine not only for publishing "A Moth with Hummingbird Wings," but for acquiring four more of my poems, ...

I'm so happy to announce that Door Is a Jar Literary Magazine will be publishing my poem "A Moth with Hummingbird Wings" this December! The piece will appear in Issue 33 Winter 2024, which will be available in print from various Barnes & Nobles, Books-a-millions, and indie bookstores across the U.S. You can subscribe to the Door Is a Jar Newsletter and keep an eye on my website and social media accounts for updates.

I loved writing poems throughout my childhood and teenage years but left poetry b...

Literary Arts in Oregon just announced that my picture book biography, Cut!: How Lotte Reiniger and a Pair of Scissors Revolutionized Animation, illustrated by Matt Schu , is a 2024 finalist for the Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature, part of the Oregon Book Awards. What a tremendous honor! I'm grateful, to say the least.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Portland on April 8, 2024. Author Kwame Alexander will host the event. 
If you'd like to attend the ceremony, you ...

Hello, dear readers! 
I feel like it's time to give an update about what I've been up to writing-wise . . . and to talk about why I don't currently have any new-release announcements.
First, my debut picture book biography, Cut!: How Lotte Reiniger and a Pair of Scissors Revolutionized Animation , illustrated by Matt Schu , has now been available from Greenwillow Books for over seven months! I'm currently booking school and library visits and have a fun presentation called "Lights! Camera! Scissors!...

In the Shadow of Blackbirds was named an official Summer Scares selection for 2023! What an incredible honor and a huge surprise. Look at the company it's in! Summer Scares is an annual list of recommended horror titles for adult, teen, and middle grade readers, developed by the Horror Writers Association in partnership with United for Libraries, Book Riot, and Booklist. Thank you to everyone who made this opportunity for Blackbirds possible! 
The book will be celebrating its tenth anniversary...

⭐ “Winters and Schu do an excellent job in telling the story of Reiniger . . . It is a story of hope, rejection, and determination, and is inspiring to all artists.” 
— School Library Journal (starred review) 
⭐ “With a refrain of ‘snip, snip, snip!’ the story introduces readers to German film pioneer Lotte Reiniger (1899–1981) . . . Schu’s exquisite digital illustrations possess a strong sense of illumination and depth, often suggesting a tactile quality, as if constructed from paper.” — Horn Boo...

My debut picture book biography, Cut!: How Lotte Reiniger and a Pair of Scissors Revolutionized Animation, is now available! Matt Schu is the illustrator, and his drawings spectacularly bring Lotte's real-life world of early-1900s art and cinema to life, while also paying tribute to the exquisite use of shadow of light in Lotte's films. 

Who was Lotte Reiniger? She was the creator of the oldest surviving full-length animated film, the inventor of an early multiplane camera, and a revolutionary si...