Katherine Dykstra is the author of WHAT HAPPENED TO PAULA: ON THE DEATH OF AN AMERICAN GIRL forthcoming from W.W. Norton in Summer 2021. A journalist, essayist, editor and teacher, her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Poets and Writers, Real Simple, The Common, Crab Orchard Review, Shenandoah, and Gulf Coast among other publications. She was a finalist for the John Guyon Literary Nonfiction Prize and has twice been included in the “Notables” section of Best American Essays. Her current work was included in Creative Capital’s “On Our Radar,” a list of projects by “artists to watch.” She lives with her husband and two children.