Kirsten Schowalter was born in Minnesota, but calls many locations -- from Seattle, Washington to Marshfield, Wisconsin -- her home. Upon her high school graduation, she attended her father's Alma Mater: St. Olaf College. Subsequent to her college years, she moved to Yakima, Washington for the company of family and mountains. She attended the University of California Berkeley to pursue a graduate degree, and is a member of the San Francisco Writer's Grotto. She dances, writes, hikes, and spends time with her family in Tacoma, Washington as much as possible.