Kate Milliken grew up in the Reagan 80s, bouncing between her father’s home in Chicago, Illinois and her mother’s home in Santa Monica, California. Unwilling to complete high school (just say no), she wrote a desperate letter of application to a small liberal arts college in Boston and was granted early acceptance. Her belief in the power of the written word then wholly solidified, Kate has been writing ever since.

Having written for television and commercial advertising, in 2006 Kate completed her Master of Fine Arts in fiction at Bennington College. Her short stories have since appeared in numerous publications, including the Santa Monica Review, Fiction, the New Orleans Review, Meridian and the Southeast Review, among others. She has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, the Tin House Summer Writing Workshops and Yaddo. Her collection of stories, If I'd Known You Were Coming, has been a finalist for the OV Books Short Story Prize, the Katherine Anne Porter Award and the Spokane Prize. Kate has been teaching on behalf of the UCLA Writers’ Program since 2007.

She lives in Northern California with her husband, their two kids and a pack of somewhat domesticated animals.