meet the author
Catarine Hancock is a poet, author and opera singer from Lexington, Kentucky, currently living in Chicago. She holds a bachelor of music in vocal performance from the University of Kentucky and a master of music in voice from Indiana University.
Aside from music, writing is her other great love. Having been a bookworm and writer all her life, her passion for poetry began at the age of 13, and shortly afterward, she began sharing her writing online. In 2017, at 18 years old, she self-published her first collection, titled the boys i've loved and the end of the world. In 2018, she released her second collection, how the words come. Both of those collections are now unpublished and out of print. Then, in 2019, shades of lovers came out. This is the book that went on to change her life.
Nearly a year after its publication, shades of lovers began receiving lots of attention on TikTok. This resulted in the book suddenly catapulting up to the top of the bestseller lists on Amazon and selling nearly 2,000 copies in under a month. By the end of that first month, Catarine was offered a 2-book deal with Central Avenue Publishing. The deal
gave shades of lovers a lovely facelift and some editing, and then the book was re-released in August 2020, just 6 short months after it initially exploded onto the PoetryTok and BookTok scene. Also acquired in the deal was her next colletion, sometimes i fall asleep thinking about you, which was released in April 2021.
In May 2022, Catarine compiled several of her most well-loved works from her first two (now out-of-print) collections, along with over a hundred other pieces she'd written that hadn't made it into any books, and self-published sprout: selected poems. At the start of 2023, her third book with Central Avenue Publishing, the Barnes and Noble bestseller i gave myself the world, released. This book is home to her most popular poem of all time, and i'd like to think, which has been listened to and shared over 50 million times since it was first posted in 2021. In 2024, she self-published the short collection holy ground, and her fourth book with Central Avenue Publihsing, patchwork: a poet's guide to love, will be released on November 4th, 2025. In total, Catarine has sold over 80,000 copies of her poetry books in the last five years, and garnered a social media audience of over 300,000.
In 2024, Catarine embarked on a new adventure: being a fantasy author. She self-published her debut novel, Curse of Stolen Flame, in November. The first book in what will be a four-book fantasy romance series, Curse of Stolen Flame was a project that took nearly 4 years to complete. The rest of the series will, ideally, not take that long, and the second installment is already underway, with release (hesitantly) slated for summer 2026.
Catarine is also well-known for her political work. Her poem it's gonna be a long four years has been seen by nearly 5 million people since it was posted in January of this year, and she has recieved many a threat for writing poetry about women deserving rights (she wishes she was lying about that). She is a fierce feminist and activist, and has used her platform to help advocate and spread awareness since its inception in 2013. She deeply values knowledge, kindness, and justice, and her beliefs are interwoven through all of her work. Even the love poems.
In addition to her writing career, Catarine has also found success as a professional musician and teacher. While in school, she performed multiple leading and supporting roles, such as Hansel in Hansel und Gretel and Zita in Gianni Schicchi, and Third Lady (pictured) in The Magic Flute. Her most cherished operatic performance is Shulamit Ran's opera Anne Frank, in which she was extremely lucky to have been given the opportunity to originate the role of Margot Frank for the world premiere in 2023. Along with that world premiere, she has also been part of nearly two dozen other world premieres of new works, most notably the premiere of the song cycle dear reader, the result of a collaboration with her dear friend and composer hunter t. johnson. This cycle set 5 poems from sometimes i fall asleep thinking about you, and Catarine premiered the work on her master's recital with hunter accompanying her. The duo have continued to work together since, and were the 2nd Place winners of the 2024 Chicago SongSlam with their song always me, another setting of one of Catarine's poems.
Catarine's truest musical love is choral music, and that is where she has flourished since
moving to Chicago in 2023. She is a member of the Chicago Chamber Choir, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, and the Grant Park Chorus, and performs multiple times throughout the year with all three organizations. With Chicago Chamber Choir, she is frequently featured as a soloist. If you live in the Chicagoland area, or are ever visiting, you can check out any of those organization's websites for information about concerts. Perhaps she is a bit biased, but they are extremely good! In addition to her choir work, she also has a lovely studio of piano and voice students that she teaches every week.
When she is not singing or teaching or writing, Catarine can be found curled up with a good fantasy novel, wandering the aisles of the local bookstore, or adding a weird décor item she found at the Goodwill to her already too-cluttered apartment.