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Meet Catholic Writer Anthony Marchetta

Meet Catholic Writer Anthony Marchetta

Last updated on: July 31, 2026 at 6:58 am by Mark Wilson

Meet Catholic Writer Anthony Marchetta 2026-07-31T06:58:22-05:00 Mark Wilson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The great thing about the Meet the Writers series is that you get to get to know a writer and what makes them tick. You get to peer into the gears and see how the gears grind and turn. If your a casual reader it might make you appreciate the reading experience more. If you’re a fellow writer, you might get some ideas for your own writing plus some lessons as you continue to practice and learn the craft and art of writing. The writer you will meet today penned these words.

The moor looked open from a distance, but the road itself was raised slightly above the peat. On either side lay dark pools that disguised treacherous sucking earth. Twice the ground gave under a horse’s hoof, and once Lynette’s mare lurched so sharply that Gareth feared the beast’s leg had broken. After a quarter of an hour of floundering through the mire the trio finally admitted defeat and went back to the path, where the black knight stood waiting for them.= Excerpt from “Son of Orkney” | The Mechanical Dragon

The black knight stands waiting for you also as you venture down the path as you get ready to…

Meet Catholic Writer Anthony Marchetta

1. Tell something interesting about yourself.
Over the past few years, I’ve played softball and hockey, and I will finish my master’s degree in Cybersecurity with a specialization in Digital Forensics in a few months. I hope that counts; most of the time I answer this question with “I wrote and published a novel,” but that’s presumably expected here.

2. What makes a good Catholic writer?
An interesting question. It seems that three critical components are buried in the question: 1) Be Catholic, 2) Be a writer, and 3) Be good (at writing, I assume). But maybe there’s more to it than that; if you’re a Catholic and a writer and even a good writer, but you write smut with beautiful prose, I wouldn’t call you a good Catholic writer. Your Catholicism should affect your worldview, and that worldview should come out in your writing.

3. What do you like about being a Catholic/Christian Writer?
We have, perhaps, the finest literary tradition in the world, stretching back to Dante, writer of arguably the single greatest piece of literature of all time, containing Malory, the great Arthurian writer, probably Shakespeare*, and then going all the way into the 20th century with Evelyn Waugh, Flannery O’Connor, Graham Greene, and even the modern day with writers such as Tim Powers, Gene Wolfe (who died less than ten years ago and had a posthumous novel come out), and, of course, the great science fiction and fantasy master John C. Wright.

Meet Catholic Hugo Nominated Writer John C Wright | An Interview With Catholic Writer John C Wright

*A little fun Shakespeare fact: There is good evidence, though not quite conclusive, that the guy from Stratford-upon-Avon actually named Shakespeare was Catholic because his family was connected with hiding priests. More recent scholarship by Dennis McCarthy has argued that Thomas North is the probable author of Shakespeare’s best works; however, there is ALSO some evidence North was Catholic, because he went on a diplomatic mission to the pope with the intention of reconciling the Church of England to the Catholic Church! However you slice it, we (plausibly, anyway) get Shakespeare too.

4. What is the Main focus of your particular Writing or what do you like to write about?
My first published stories were in issues 3 and 4 of the Sci Phi Journal, a still-running publication then edited by the excellent Jason Rennie (who, by the way, converted to Catholicism since I have known him!). These were science fiction; one was a short thought experiment and one was a rather ham-fisted time travel story about a professor who goes to the Crucifixion. I cut my teeth and got most of my experience writing horror, of all things, for my good friend Benjamin Wheeler’s horror anthology podcast Pinkerton’s Ghosts. I wrote an episode once every three weeks for the first two seasons, and even wrote the script for a short animated film based on the climax of one of my stories, here: Pinkerton’s Ghosts: Throne of Hades AnimaticI co-wrote and edited two anthologies with my sister, both of which are now sadly out of print: a book of theological science fiction and an Arthurian collection. Arthuriana is where I currently live; my first novel, out next year, is an Arthurian work, and I am working on a novel about Sir Gareth right now, based on the Tale of Sir Gareth in Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur”. I really enjoy diving into the Arthurian mindset; it’s just so rich in storytelling potential!

“The lady Lyoness […] had his [Gareth’s] dwarf in examination.” N. C. Wyeth’s illustration of her and Melot in The Boy’s King Arthur (1922)

5. How does your Catholic Faith influence your writing?
This is a difficult question for me to answer; ask a fish what it is like living in water. I can no more prevent my Catholicism from influencing my writing than I can prevent my own perspective on life from doing so. I view everything through a Catholic lens; the world makes sense to me because I am Catholic. Thus, if something in my book is not explicitly Catholic, it is implicitly so, and if it is not implicitly so, it is because I am actively trying to write from a worldview not natural to me. I don’t think I’ve even attempted something like that yet.

6. What’s your favorite article/Post/book/story you have written?
In terms of finished works it is definitely my upcoming novel “After Camelot: Tales of Redemption in a Fallen Realm”, a novel following various Arthurian figures as they try to deal with the aftermath of Arthur’s final battle and decide what to do next. It will be published next year by DNS Publications, the publishing arm of the Dominican Nuns of Summit, NJ. Check out Variety Pack Issue XI if you want to read chapter 10 published as an independent short story (free online!). I worked hard on this, and I am quite happy with how it’s turned out. I am waiting to work through it chapter by chapter with my editor, so I suspect it will only improve.

7. What is your favorite topic/subject to write about?
As you can probably guess, Arthuriana. I find the Lancelot-Guinevere material particularly fascinating. There’s something so psychologically real and meaningful about the fact that Camelot’s greatest knight is also the engineer of its fall through his sin. It gives me much to think about.

8. Favorite scripture verse.
Psalm 23, verse 4: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for you are with me.

Look, I know it’s basically the most basic verse you can pick, like a half-step up from John 3:16. Well, too bad. If God wanted me to pick a different verse he wouldn’t have made Psalm 23:4 go so hard.

Allegory of Christ[as the Good Shepherd, 3rd century. The pail (of milk?) carried by the Shepherd has been seen as symbolizing the Eucharist by some.

9. What Are you currently working on?
“Son of Orkney”, a novel about Gareth of Orkney, a young man who goes to King Arthur’s court in disguise to see if he can make it as a knight outside of the shadow of his older brothers, especially Sir Gawaine, and overcome the Orkney tendencies towards rage and violence. It is based on Malory’s “Tale of Sir Gareth”, but I have really tried to get into the psychology of Gareth. What sort of person would do what Gareth does in Malory’s work? Why would they do it? That’s what I am trying to explore.

10. Name a favorite saint or Catholic or some other figure who inspires you in your life.
My all-time favorite saint, the Blessed Mother of course, aside, is Saint Jeanne d’Arc. Her story is utterly astonishing, and the fact that she is perhaps the single most well-documented figure of her era just adds to the mystique of it all. It was all real and it was possibly the most incredible life of any human being since Christ.

That said, I feel in many ways the Saint of our times is St. Pier Giorgio Frassati. He was canonized alongside St. Carlo Acutis, who overshadows him, mostly because, I believe, the Vatican decided to use St. Carlo – quite understandably! – as a bridge to get young people interested in Catholicism. But I think St. Frassati’s life has much to teach us. His motto, “verso l’alto” – to the heights – is one I think of often. In a world where so many of the younger generations are struggling to simply survive and carve out a piece of happiness, St. Frassati strove for and achieved greatness – but he did it not by performing miracles or leading armies or founding religious orders but by serving God wholeheartedly in all aspects of his life and inspiring those around him to do the same. We, too, can be great – it’s just that our standards of greatness need to be God’s, not the world’s. That’s what really matters anyway.

11. Who is your favorite Living Writer?
John C. Wright. “Awake in the Night Land” is a book I re-read constantly; I think it is astonishingly brilliant.

Second place to Nick Cole. His wasteland trilogy is also a masterpiece, especially the second book, “The Savage Boy”, which is somehow, simultaneously, a devastating tragedy and a powerfully moving story of resilience and, ultimately, grace. It’s fantastic.

12. If you could have lunch with any deceased writer who would it be, what would you eat and what would you talk about?
Oh man. G.K. Chesterton, maybe? What we eat is mostly immaterial to me (though I suppose my favorite food is cheese sausage), but there are so many things I’d love to pick his brain about, and I get the feeling I would have my worldview rearranged by the time it ended. Chesterton will do that to you. What would Chesterton make of Donald Trump? What would he make of modern England?

13. Name a favorite movie/tv show or music you find worth sharing with others.
I am one of the writers, but Ben Wheeler’s Pinkerton’s Ghosts is currently in its third season and does not get nearly the attention it deserves. It’s excellent and has built up a lot of lore over the years.

To name something I haven’t worked on that’s somewhat niche, Paul Shapera’s New Albion Radio Hour is a brilliant opera framed as a radio show about a civil war in the city of New Albion, a futuristic dystopia where rebels who may or may not be able to communicate with the dead fight against a corrupt government that has turned a grieving widow into a super-soldier who single-handedly turns the tide of the war. It has excellent music and a story that never goes exactly where you expect it to, but somehow manages to pull everything together by the end.

14. Can you see one of your books being made into a movie or tv series? Who would you want to star or direct?
A Pinkerton’s Ghosts TV series could be great. My character, Sean Russo, would probably work with a young…hmmmm…Brad Pitt maybe? Not sure. In my family the running joke is that young Hugh Jackman fits almost every masculine role perfectly, so I wouldn’t hate that.For “Son of Orkney” I think Tom Holland like ten years ago would make a great Gareth.

15. Favorite Historical event.
I’m going to leave out biblical events because then the list would just go down the biblical timeline. I pick the Siege of Szigetvár, perhaps the most under-appreciated “great battle/last stand” in world history. It has EVERYTHING: A tiny, outnumbered force led by a charismatic leader holding out for over a month, against overwhelming odds, against the greatest army in the world at the time, incredibly high stakes (failure would have cleared the road towards Vienna and put the rest of Habsburg Europe in incredible peril), and a dramatic, even cinematic ending. Suleiman the Magnificent himself led the campaign and died during the siege, and it all ended in a final stand where almost all of the defenders died, but not without blowing up the castle fortress they were holding out in, killing hundreds of Ottomans in the process. The town was lost, but the Ottoman army had been delayed long enough that they were forced to stop their invasion, and Europe was saved. Amazing.

Nikola IV Zrinski’s charge from the fortress of Szigetvár (painting by Johann Peter Krafft, 1825)

This interview was published on July 29, 2026

The day these other Historical Trivia events happened.

1862 – American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.

1948 – Olympic Games: The Games of the XIV Olympiad: After a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, open in London.

1981 – A worldwide television audience of around 750 million people watch the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

1989- Kiki’s Delivery Service opens in theaters.

16. What else do you want people to know about anything.
My writing blog is themechanicaldragon.wordpress.com

Learn More

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