Kate Braverman is a native of Los Angeles. She was an activist in the 1960s in Berkeley. A member of the Venice Poetry Workshop and professor of creative writing at California State University, she also taught creative writing at the UCLA Writer’s Program. Since 1995, she has lived with her husband, Alan, and daughter, Gabrielle, in the Allegany Mountains. Braverman has published three novels – Lithium for Medea, Palm Latitudes, and Wonders of the West – four books of poetry, and two collections of short stories. Her stories Tales from the Mekong Delta and Pagan Night are widely anthologised, and her work has been selected for Best American Short Stories. In 1992 she received the O. Henry Award.