The Five Stages of Stuttering explores the connection between stuttering and grief. What if poetry itself is a form of disfluency referred to as stufftering?
Cassie Holguin-Pettinato is a Chicana poet, collage artist, and theremin player living in the El Paso/Juárez frontera. She is a fourth-generation resident of La Calavera, the last remaining neighborhood of El Paso's historic Smeltertown. She is the author of The Lamb's Tail (Bottlecap Press, 2022), which looks into the inner landscape of emotions, unspoken pain, and family history. Her most recent book Ode To My Black Child: An Illustrated Poem (Bottlecap Press, 2022) is a story about a mother's love, birth trauma and postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter Sonnet. Cassie graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a BA in Creative Writing and a minor in Museum Studies. Her poetry and art have appeared in Chrysalis, Chismosa Press, and an anthology titled "American Graveyard, Calls To End Gun Violence," published by Read or Green Books. In 2008, she co-founded a literary center at El Paso Community College with Ysella Fulton-Slavin called "Papagayo," which provided writing workshops, community service hours, and literary events. Cassie is currently an academic writing tutor at the El Paso Community College and gives poetry and collage workshops.
