Hello, and welcome to the party! I’m Kathleen Bourbon, and here’s a bit about who I am, not only as a storyteller, but as a weird girl in this world.

From the very beginning of my life, I was a spunky kid who wanted to tell a story. I’d make up plays or movies and force my brother to act in them, or I’d gather the whole family to dramatically read my latest creation to them. (And when it came to playing Barbies and Polly Pockets, there was always drama and a plot.) When I got a little older, I’d spend days hiding at my desk with my prized laptop, typing as the stories pulsated in my head, and by the time I was twelve, there were thousands of Word documents on my drive.

Growing up in a suburb outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota, I had access to all kinds of creative outlets and events, and by the end of middle school, I had evolved into a little punk rocker who wrote on Wattpad and played in a rock band.

I did end up pausing my writing to pursue a brief music career in my late teens, but when COVID hit and stunted my college experience, I found myself writing more than I ever had. I soon entered the Creative Writing program at Bemidji State University, and for a few years, I lived in the North Woods and studied literary fiction.

But I quickly discovered that the type of stories I wanted to write had more edge and fewer rules than the things I was learning in class. I wanted to write horrors, mysteries, and thrillers, and I wanted to genre-bend them with comedy, romance, and Tarantino edge. I wanted to indulge in the camp factor and blow things out of proportion to tell a story through aesthetics, culture, and drama.

So, I transferred to an online school and moved back to the Twin Cities, which is where I am today, finishing up my degree with the company of my black cat, Bones, and my axolotl, Carlos. I’ve got hefty plans for the future, including opening up Beta Reading and publishing a short story collection, so stay tuned via my social media updates!

When you read my stories, you’ll feel a pulse through their pages. My narratives are like sharks that will sink if they cease to swim, and the plots I chose are fresh and complemented by unforgettable, complex characters ready to take you for a ride.

- KB