Kathleen Novak is a poet and writer who grew up on the iron mining range of northern Minnesota, the granddaughter of Italian and Croatian immigrants. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, she is the author of the highly praised novels Rare Birds, a NEMBA nominee released in 2017, and Do Not Find Me, which was a finalist for the 2017 Minnesota Book Award. Her third novel, The Autobiography of Corrine Bernard, is a parallel story to Do Not Find Me, and a semi-finalist for the 2019 Chautauqua Prize. Novak’s poems have been published in small literary magazines nationally and have won recognition in contests as diverse as the AAUW and New York Public Radio. She lives in Minneapolis.