Catherine Yronwode

Catherine Anna "Cat" Yronwode (née Manfredi; May 12, 1947) is an American writer, editor, graphic designer, typesetter, publisher, and practitioner of folk magic with an extensive career in the comic book industry.

Early life

Catherine Anna Manfredi was born in 1947 in San Francisco, her father Joseph Manfredi, was a Sicilian American abstract artist and her mother Liselotte Erlanger, a writer, was an Ashkenazi Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. She grew up in Berkeley and Santa Monica.

Yronwode made window signs for the Cabale Creamery (a folk music coffeehouse in Berkeley) while still in high school. She attended Shimer College in Illinois as an early entrant, but dropped out. Returning to Berkeley, she sold the Berkeley Barb underground newspaper on the streets, and catalogued rare books for her parents' bookstore. In 1965 she left urban life for rural places.

Career

Early work

Yronwode began writing while in her teens, contributing to science fiction fanzines during the 1960s. She was a member of the Bay Area Astrologers Group, co-writing its weekly astrology column for an underground newspaper, San Francisco Express Times. She produced record reviews on a freelance basis for the nascent Rolling Stone magazine, and short articles on low-tech living for the Whole Earth Catalog and Country Women magazine. While in jail for growing marijuana, she wrote about her experiences ("Letters from Jail") for the Spokane Natural an underground newspaper.