Mary Catherine Gordon has no memory of not wanting to be a writer—even when she wanted to be a nun. She was born in 1949 in Rockaway, New York. Gordon has become known for her investigations of Catholic family life, Catholic spirituality, thwarted love, moral struggle, personal sacrifice, female identity, and family pain. She is often praised for her deep insights, lyrical writing, and what Los Angeles Times critic Ellen Akins called, “her delicate rendering of the drama of consciousness.”