Kate Buckley, a ninth-generation Kentuckian, was educated at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and the University of Kentucky. She is currently an MFA candidate at Spalding University in Louisville, and has served as the Executive Vice President of Castello Cities Internet Network (CCIN) since 1998.

Kate's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in a variety of journals including: Bellingham Review, The Cafe Review, The Heartland Review, New Southerner, North American Review, Shenandoah, Slipstream and Spillway, and in the anthologies: Tide Pools, an Anthology of Orange County Poetry (Moon Tide Press, 2007) and Verseweavers (Oregon State Poetry Association, 2008). She is the author of A Wild Region (Moon Tide Press, 2008). A second book, Follow Me Down, is forthcoming from Tebot Bach Press (2009).

Recent honors & awards include: 2007 Gabehart Prize for Imaginative Writing for poetry, 2008 Joy Bale Boone Poetry Prize (2nd place & finalist), 2008 Bellingham Review's The 49th Parallel Award in Poetry (runner Up), 2008 New Southerner Literary Contest (finalist), 2008 Atlanta Review's International Poetry Competition (finalist), and the 2008 North American Review's James Hearst Poetry Prize, selected by Molly Peacock. Kate has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize (2008), and was shortlisted for the Ruskin Poetry Award from Red Hen Press (2008).

Kate is the co-facilitator of Laguna Poets, founder of Women Poets of Laguna, and conducts workshops in and around Laguna Beach, including workshops for the Orange County Writers Group. She is also available for one-on-one poetry mentoring. Kate has volunteered extensively, including working with young readers at the Laguna Beach Boys and Girls Club. Most recently, she served as poet of occasion at the 2009 Laguna Beach Presidential Inaugural Gala and judge for the 11th Annual Laguna Beach Library Poetry Contest.

She is also an accomplished artist whose paintings have been published in journals such as The Adirondack Review, and purchased by such entities as The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (Board of Directors Invitation, 2005), as well as privately collected. Her paintings are available for purchase; she occasionally accepts commissions.

Kate currently divides her time between Kentucky and Southern California, where she lives with her husband, Chuck Carstensen, in Laguna Beach.