Kate Schatz (pronounced ‘Shots’) is the New York Times-bestselling author of Rad American Women A-Z and Rad Women Worldwide, as well as My Rad Life: A Journal and Rid of Me: A Story. She is the co-founder of Solidarity Sundays, a nationwide network of feminist activist groups. She’s a writer, organizer, public speaker, educator, and left-handed vegetarian Bay Area-born-and-bred feminist activist mama.
Kate’s books have gotten love from BUST, Elle, Publisher’s Weekly, BuzzFeed, MTV, Ms., Teen Vogue, Kirkus Reviews, GOOD, The New York Times, AFROPUNK, among others. She and her collaborator Miriam Klein Stahl have appeared on Mashable, msnbc, and numerous public radio programs and podcasts, including Politically Reactive with Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu, KQED Forum, Minnesota Public Radio, and KPCC’s Take Two. As a public speaker, Kate has appeared at over 100 public schools and libraries, and has given keynotes and talks for a wide range of organizations, speaking about everything from her books to contemporary feminism to electoral politics and political change.
Her book of fiction, Rid of Me: A Story, was published in 2006 as part of the acclaimed 33 1/3 series. Her work has been published in LENNY, Buzzfeed, Signature, Brightly, Oxford American, East Bay Express, Denver Quarterly, and Joyland, among others. Her short story “Folsom, Survivor” was included as a “Notable Short Story” in Best American Short Stories 2011, and her essay “What I Mean (or Dear White People)” appears in the anthology Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times.
She is the former Chair of the School of Literary Arts at Oakland School for the Arts, where she taught fiction, poetry, and journalism to 9th-12th graders for many years. She taught writing and literature at UC Santa Cruz, San Jose State, and Rhode Island College. She received her MFA in Fiction from Brown University, and a double BA in Women’s Studies/Creative Writing from UC Santa Cruz. She lives with her family on the island of Alameda and is represented by the agent Charlotte Sheedy.