LITERARY WORKS

Mary Beth Caschetta is the author of a book of short stories. She has won several literary awards for her short fiction and her literary essays. She also published an essay in the New York Times called "What Wasn't Passed On," and is writing a book on disinheritance.

               

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"What MB Caschetta’s novel brilliantly proposes is an underground railroad for girls. It feels like one of those girls grew up and wrote this. I loved reading this and rooting for Cee-Cee, the hero of Miracle Girls, as she struggles to survive her own family and her saintly little girl voyage with the aid of intergenerational healing, and the vintage magic of radical nuns and priests from a time when they worked for peace and helped the lost girls of the world find home."

Eileen Myles
author of Chelsea Girls and New And Selected Poems

"Miracle Girls is that rarest thing: a literary miracle. MB Caschetta will break your heart and mend it all at once."

Darin Strauss
author of Chang And Eng and Half A Life

"Miracle Girls is a wonderful book I will give to friends."

Beverly Donofrio
author of Riding In Cars With Boys

"Something extraordinary is happening in upstate New York, where 10-year-old Cee-Cee has visions of angels and missing children. But after Cee-Cee performs a miracle, she's placed under the care of a radical group of nuns. Darkly beautiful, Girls examines how forgiveness and wisdom take hold in the most unexpected places."

People Magazine

"In upstate New York, young girls go missing, nuns are revolting, Nixon is resigning, and young Cee-Cee Bianco has visions of the Virgin Mary in this polished debut novel....Short story writer (Lucy on the West Coast, 1996) Caschetta's first novel is filled with a kind of dark poetry and the menace of ordinary evils."

Kirkus Review

"Mary Beth is a superb writer of many genres. I was introduced to her writing through her expert handling of HIV/AIDS and human sexuality in her role as editor of GMHC's Treatment Issues and the SEICUS Report. But I fell in love with the voice in her quirky fiction debut, Lucy on the West Coast. What a treasure of a writer this woman is! From sex to science to medicine to her delightful fiction ––– she is truly gifted."

Rosa Denenberg, MSN
Family Nurse Practitioner
Senior Medical Writer
Advantage Communications

"Wonderful storytelling!"

Beverly Coyle
author of In Troubled Waters

"In Mary Beth Caschetta’s vivid fiction, Catholic fervor, lesbian longings, and the shapes and voices of the dead all mingle with scrupulous regard for the ordinary rhythms and nuances of life. The result is mysterious, unsettling, and absolutely convincing."

Paul Russell
author of Sea Of Tranquility

"There are, I suppose, stories full of brilliance, hilarity, and longing--the stories in MB Caschetta's terrific Pretend I'm Your Friend are full of all these things--but I can't remember when I've read a collection so full of life. Actual life: the bad jokes, the astounding velocity, the sweetness and darkness. You will love the characters here the way you love your own family: complicatedly, with tenderness, understanding, and consternation. The only difference may be how willing--and eager--you are to introduce them to friends. Good heavens, this book is good."

Elizabeth McCracken
author of Thunderstruck

"A book of youthful verve, humor, melancholy and desire. It confronts the central mysteries: sexual, familial and spiritual, with elegance and aplomb."

Carole Maso
author of Mother & Child

"An affecting collection...about...the things we do for love."

People Magazine

"Caschetta's prose is simple and evocative--and as she skillfully weaves these individual lives together, she reveals a complex tapestry of human experience.”

Entertainment Weekly

 

Reviews of Mary Beth Cashetta's books.