Katherine Pew is an author who loves writing stories about transformation, especially in nature and art.
Katherine lives with her family in the Sonoran desert, the setting for her debut picture book, Little Bat and the Queens of the Night, illustrated by Charles Santoso (Anne Schwartz Books, Random House) and launching on May 11, 2027.
She enjoys morning walks with her dogs, Star and Winston, hiking in the canyons with family and friends, watching wildlife, and cooling off with evening swims. Her favorite time of year is monsoon season, when rains quench the desert, the river runs, and toads emerge from the sand.
She grew up building desert forts with friends and visited Maine in the summer, where she searched for sea glass, explored the cliff walk and tide pools, and played backgammon with her grandmother on rainy days.
Katherine writes lyrical stories about nature, artists, wonder, family, and friendship. She enjoys moderating talks with kids’ book authors at the Tucson Festival of Books, serving on the board of The Loft Cinema, a wonderful movie theater with a kids’ film festival, and spending time at Tucson Village Farm.
After college, Katherine spent a year interning and acting at the Alley Theater in Houston. Later, she worked at a magazine called Time Out New York, where she wrote articles about actors, movies, and kite flying in New York City. She also taught and wrote about yoga for many years.
One favorite childhood picture book was Lore Segal’s Tell Me a Mitzi. Another was Roger Duvoisin’s Veronica, about an attention-seeking hippo who travels to the big city to seek her fortune, accidentally causes trouble and is thrown in jail, but is eventually rescued and given a celebratory homecoming. Katherine’s favorite bedtime story that she read to her kids was Big Wolf & Little Wolf, by Nadine Brun-Cosme.
Katherine loves collecting irresistible cards from bookshops and saving them to send to just the right person.
Katherine is represented by Andie Smith at Creative Media Agency.
