Writer of facts and fiction

I write novels and stories inspired by sets of facts and bodies of knowledge. I'm a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and my writing appears in Iron Horse, Stone Canoe, Sport Literate, and elsewhere. Find my review of Best Microfiction 2021 at Trampset. I'm at work on a novel composed of short stories, all connected by water.

As a writer for Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences, I report on faculty research in a wide range of subjects. Recent favorites include articles on: a free press and democracy, exoplanets, extreme astronomy, and a submarine robot named Icefin.

Send me a thought, a link, or a poem. I love to connect with people in the writing community. And fellow runners and theater geeks, too.

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Recent Blog Posts

Large house in dim light

One really good—I mean evil— literary villain

By Kate Blackwood | October 31, 2021

I’m not into horror, so scenes of fake blood and ax murderers do not move me. But a malevolent character who only wants others to suffer—this is truly scary.

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Steve Jobs, my iPhone, & boredom

By Kate Blackwood | October 10, 2021

Steve Jobs started a movement to connect our computers with our hands. Ten years after his death, Steven Levy’s 2011 remembrance, re-posted this week, gives insight about the person behind the devices and interfaces I use — and sometimes resist.

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gymnast flipping in the air

More than gymnastics

By Kate Blackwood | October 3, 2021

“Watching her is like trying to catch the light.” Camonghne Felix captures Simone Biles in writing as deftly as a fast-shutter camera in an article for The Cut.

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