About
Kate Blakinger is the author of the story collection HOW TO COURT DISASTER, winner of the 2026 Iowa Short Fiction Award. Her stories and essays have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Catamaran, Epiphany, The Iowa Review, The Offing, and other journals. She holds an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, where she was awarded the Meijer Postgraduate Fellowship. Her writing has also received support from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Jentel, MacDowell, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. For four years, she served her neighbors as a committeeperson, a hyperlocal elected office. She works as a freelance developmental editor and lives in Philadelphia with her family.
Featured Work
How to Court Disaster
How to Court Disaster tells the stories of characters knocked sideways by circumstances or lured into trouble by the glitter of unknown adventures with irresponsible people. A shipwrecked sailor crawls out of the sea and joins the crew of a movie being filmed on a remote island. A pregnant teen finds herself on foot in the middle of a whiteout snowstorm, a stranger’s baby in her arms. A grieving mother explores the secret chambers of a cave system, and a runaway takes shelter with the grandmother she believes is a witch. Richly observed and shot through with a touch of uncanny magic, this collection is about loves that wound, losses that haunt, and desires that spur surprising transformations.
