Harriet Castrataro grew up loving words. Her mother wrote plays, and her grandmother wrote poems and stories. She has worked at the Lilly Library, taught English composition by correspondence, and advised hundreds of Indiana University health students. She is now retired, living with her husband James in Bloomington, Indiana. Her current passions are cooking, taking IU classes in food, music and art, and, of course, writing.
Front porches in Bloomington began to flourish in the early 1900s, when bungalows became the most common type of house being built. As writer Harriet Castrataro observes, front porches create a liminal space between two worlds — where the private and public come together. Bloomington’s front porches, both old and new, serve a multitude of purposes. Click here to read the full story.