Catharina Coenen is a first-generation German immigrant to the northwestern “chimney” of Pennsylvania, where she teaches biology at Allegheny College. Much of her creative work addresses transgenerational effects of war. Her essays have appeared or are forthcoming in The American Scholar, The Southampton Review Online, Superstition Review, Appalachian Heritage, The Christian Science Monitor, the Nonfiction Food anthology (Woodhall Press), and elsewhere. Her poetry has appeared in the Spectral Lines anthology (Alternating Current Press) and is forthcoming in The Coil and Split Rock Review.