Author and poet Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt has released her 13th book, The World Has Changed from When I Last was Here (ATW Publishing), a collection of award-winning and new poems centered around adversity, the strength and resilience needed to overcome it, and a movement toward peace. A statement of the times exploring late-stage capitalism’s impact on individuals—especially those who have been marginalized—the pieces touch on socioeconomic instability, homelessness, injustice, and other underlying factors contributing to a global deterioration in mental health. 

But it is also a statement of what is needed to create a better world, according to Gotthardt. 

The book “takes readers on difficult journeys, processes the ugly, and spits it out as hope,” Gotthardt, an advocate for mental health, says. “They are a reflection of the world we live in, but also what is possible when we connect with others and with nature. We are not alone in our struggles, there is help out there, and we can heal.” 

Editor of HADNL magazine and author of Yoke, Caiti Quatmann says, “We are invited to become what the speaker becomes, unraveling and reconciling pain, turmoil, doubt, and change amid vivid natural imagery. Nature becomes the medium in Gotthardt’s work—a collection that brings to life the deeply human experiences nestled within the world around us.”

Amanda V. Judd, award-winning poet and author of Daddy: A Remembrance, says, “Gotthardt opens this collection with a bang and never lets up, peeling back our layers on page one, not to reveal our vulnerabilities, but to let us know we are not alone. These poems are deep, sensitive and thoughtful, offering us a sense of hope. But they also have an edge.”

“I make sense of the world through poetry,” says Gotthardt of her writing process. “These poems are personal in that they were written during a highly charged period of my life. But poetry being poetry, the verses blew up well beyond the literal. They took on lives of their own, ultimately illustrating universal themes through poetry that I hope is accessible to poets and non-poets alike.”

Poet and narrative Jay McClendon calls the book “a hero’s journey …. Gotthardt’s best work to date,” and award-winning author, publisher, and speaker Liletta Harlem says, “What is most striking is how Gotthardt leads us through the stages of grief, arriving finally at a place of acceptance and, ultimately, peace. It is a moving and thought-provoking experience that resonates long after the last page is turned.”

The World Has Changed from When I Last Was Here is available through Barnes & Noble and other retailers. 

Learn more at ChangedWorldPoetry.com. 

Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt is a disabled Gen X poet of Lebanese and Sicilian descent. A first-generation college graduate, she is the author of 13 books, including a Silver Award winner from the Nonfiction Authors Association, an Amazon bestseller, a BookFest First Place award winner, and a Library of Virginia 2024 Literary Awards nominated collection. 

Since the early 1990s, her work has appeared in more than a dozen anthologies, as well as magazines such as Yankee, Frogpond, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Southern Quill, BigCityLit, Haiku Canada, Panoply, North of Oxford, ONE ART and others. She has freelanced for various regional magazines and news outlets since the early 2000s. 

Gotthardt has won awards from the Poetry Society of Virginia, Virginia Writers Club, Loudoun County Library Foundation, Prince William County Arts Council, Poetry Super Highway, and several publications. Her poem “Now Entering Manassas” was included in a time capsule as part of the City of Manassas, Virginia’s 150^th anniversary celebration. 

A Massachusetts native, Gotthardt resided in Prince William County, Virginia, for more than 20 years. She is the mother of two grown children and now lives in Louisa County, Virginia, with her husband and rescue dog. 

Learn more at KatherineGotthardt.com.