About Kate
"I don’t trust people until I know what they love. If they cannot admit to what they love, or in fact love nothing, I cannot take even their smartest criticism seriously." – Stephen Dunn
For thirty-plus years Kate Moses has been passionate about guiding writers toward realizing the full potential of their literary projects. She has been an actively publishing writer of fiction, creative nonfiction, & literary criticism for just as long.
Her award-winning first novel, Wintering, has been published to international accolades in 16 languages. Cakewalk: A Memoir was chosen by NPR as one of its favorite memoirs of 2010. Kate is also the coeditor of two bestselling anthologies of essays on motherhood, Mothers Who Think and Because I Said So. Kate and her books have received numerous commendations including an American Book Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, a Prix des Lectrices de Elle, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, a Poets & Writers Debut Fiction selection, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship as well as fellowships from Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Hedgebrook, Karuna, The Lighthouse Works, and MacDowell Colony.
Kate’s high-level professional experience in the literary field includes being a founding senior editor and staff writer at Salon, senior acquisitions editor at North Point Press, a senior or managing editor at several monthly magazines, and the literary director of Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco. Books under Kate’s editorship have won the James Beard Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN Faulkner Award. Among the writers Kate has worked with as an editor are Evan S. Connell, M. F. K. Fisher, Peter Matthiessen, Jayne Anne Phillips, James Salter, Ayelet Waldman, and many more. She has been on the creative writing faculties at San Francisco State, University of San Francisco, the State University of New York, the Gotham Writers Workshop, Key West Literary Seminar, and Hedgebrook, and has taught at twenty-plus colleges and universities in the U.S. and England. She is a member of the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics & Writers (ALSCW), Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), The Authors Guild, the Editorial Freelancers Association, and PEN America and supports many literary organizations that in turn support writers. She serves on the Board of Directors for Craigardan arts residency center.
Kate holds an MFA in Fiction from San Francisco State University and a Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa, from the University of the Pacific. Recent clients of Birds & Muses include writers in twenty states and nine countries beyond the U.S.
For press coverage about Kate and her books, please visit our Press Page. For additional information on Kate’s writing, please visit katemoses.com.
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”When I worked with Kate she made me pistachio macarons. No pistachio macaron that I have tasted since has been able to match it. Kate also read my writing and drew out essential truths that I had previously been unable to see. No mentor since has been able to provide the clear counsel and direction that she gave me. She is fantastic.” ”
““It was my great fortune to have Kate’s mentorship while writing my manuscript. Under her guidance, twelve disparate essays ripened and trellised their way into a unified book about language as homeland from childhood through motherhood. After our work together was through, Kate passed my manuscript to her literary agency and introduced me to a wide community of distinguished and connected authors. Kate embodies warmth, generosity and brilliance. I learned from her awesome woman-mother-artist self during a time when I was conceiving my own versions of these identities. Kate has the rare gift to truly see you, and with this vision help you become the whole version of yourself both on and off the page. It was over five years ago when Kate had me under her wing, and I still think of her when I write, when I mother. When I’m being my best self, Kate is with me.””
““I began working with Kate after I’d hit a wall revising my novel and couldn’t find a way to move forward. She came highly recommended, and so I decided to try a consultation. Just in that first conversation, she had so much insight into my characters and their histories that she actually helped solve several problems I’d been struggling with. I decided on a full developmental edit, and her feedback was revelatory: thorough, specific, concrete, encouraging, and completely spot-on, and she found all these layers and connections to unpack and deepen and propel the story. She also pointed out some ticks in my writing that I’d overlooked. It was like being handed a roadmap for revision; I knew exactly what the book needed and where to go next, which made me excited to get back to work on it every morning. I just can’t stress enough how amazing that felt after being stuck for so long. I also want to add that in addition to her brilliance as a reader, and all her sincere care and generosity in giving feedback, Kate is also just a really lovely person. She has so much warmth and humor and kindness; talking with her was a genuine pleasure, and I would absolutely recommend her to anyone. She is a gift for writers, and I just wish I’d met her years ago.””