How do you define home? Is it a person, a place, a thing? In what we leave behind, Katherine J Zumpano looks to answer these questions. In this deeply personal poetry collection, Zumpano's poems explore themes of belonging, family, and loss. "how do you process grief when loss doesn't stop?" she writes in 'elegies for a small town.' "I want to write of home. instead I write elegies for a place I cannot love."
About the AuthorZumpano, Katherine J.: - Katherine J Zumpano is a poet and writer in the Pacific Northwest. She graduated from Western Washington University in 2021, with a Bachelor of Arts in English, with a creative writing emphasis. Her debut poetry collection, from me, to you, was released in 2023, and her second collection, what we leave behind, was released in February 2026. She has had poems published in several literary magazines, including Southchild Lit, Jeopardy Magazine, and WhatcomWRITES. She also self-publishes poetry, essays, and short fiction on her Substack, fragments from a soft life. Katherine lives with her fiancé and their cat, Willow, who supervises all writing sessions by napping as close to the keyboard as possible. For more poems, stories, and cat photos, you can follow her on Instagram and Threads @kjzwrites.