About
Kathleen was born in Compton, California, to Mexican parents, and grew up in San Bernardino. Kat has a degree in linguistics from Stanford University, an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington, and an MFA from the University of New Orleans. The author of six books, Kat has written a collection of stories, three novels, a book of essays, and nonfiction The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island, from the University of Washington Press. Her three novels set in Northern Mexico are being reprinted by Raven Chronicles Press, and a new slipstream novel is forthcoming from Rosarium Press in 2025.
Her work has received many awards, including the Western States Book Award, the Governors Writers Award, and two Artist Trust Fellowships. Kat served as permanent faculty at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, as a visiting professor at Seattle University and the University of New Mexico, and at conferences and workshops that include the Clarion West Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop. In 2025, she is curating the Jack Straw Writers Program that trains and records author for audio distribution. Kat has lived near Seattle, Washington, since 1983, and has been designated an Island Treasure.
Featured Work
The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island
As friends began “going back to the land” at the same time that a health issue emerged, Kathleen Alcala set out to re-examine her relationship with food at the most local level. Remembering her parents, Mexican immigrants who grew up during the Depression, and the memory of planting, growing, and harvesting fresh food with them as a child, she decided to explore the history of the Pacific Northwest island she calls home.
In The Deepest Roots, Alcalá walks, wades, picks, pokes, digs, cooks, and cans, getting to know her neighbors on a much deeper level. Wanting to better understand how we once fed ourselves, and acknowledging that there may be a future in which we could need to do so again, she meets those who experienced the Japanese American internment during World War II, learns the unique histories of the blended Filipino and Native American community, the fishing practices of the descendants of Croatian immigrants, and the Suquamish elder who shares with her the food legacy of the island itself.
Combining memoir, historical records, and a blueprint for sustainability, The Deepest Roots shows us how an island population can mature into responsible food stewards and reminds us that innovation, adaptation, diversity, and common sense will help us make wise decisions about our future. And along the way, we learn how food is intertwined with our present but offers a path to a better understanding of the future.
Other Works
Press and Media Mentions
- "Insights from a Climate Oasis" in High Country News
- "The Deepest Roots Explores our Local Food Supply" The Seattle Times
- "Amid Uncertain Times, Eleven New and Necessary Books"
- Trailer for "The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island"
- Interview with Vicki St. Clair on KKNX
