Kate Risse was born in Boston and spent summers at her grandparents’ beach house along a central stretch of the Florida Panhandle. She remembers expansive rolling white dunes covered with saw grass and sea oats, wild rosemary, and shorebird nests, much of which have since been paved with asphalt. While weather along this coast has always been unpredictable, the category 5 Hurricane Michael, making landfall in 2018, obliterated neighbors’ houses and animal habitats on the barrier island where Kate spends time with her family, affording a glimpse of what humanity and all living things are up against as the climate changes, and fueling this what if narrative.

Kate earned a Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from Boston College. She teaches Spanish language and culture at Tufts University, including a course on climate justice. She has published both short fiction and articles on Spanish history. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with her family.