Katherine Nelson-Born is a founding member of the Northwest Florida Poets Chapter of the Florida State Poets Association. She is a longtime member of Emerald Coast Writers for which she served as past president. She served as the Northwest Florida Poet Laureate 2020-2023. As part of its Poet Laureate Series, Emerald Coast Writers published her second poetry collection, Bone Geometry, in 2023, available here. Bone Geometry won the Florida Writers Association's 2024 Bronze Royal Palm Literary Award for Published Anthology.

Katherine's debut speculative novel, Before the Thunder, won the Florida Writers Association's 2024 Gold Royal Palm Literary Award in the blended genre unpublished category. The novel also was awarded 2024 Book of the Year from the Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Literary Awards. The novel’s introductory chapter was recognized by the Tallahassee Writers Association in its 2019-2020 Seven Hills Literary Competition, winning an award and chapter publication in the 2020 Seven Hills Review, available on Amazon.com.



Editor for K & K Writing Services and Born Consulting Services (BCS), Katherine earned her PhD at Georgia State University and her MFA in Poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Katherine took her first poetry workshop while a University of New Orleans undergraduate, winning the 1990 University of New Orleans/Tennessee Williams Ellipsis Poetry Award.

Katherine’s poems and other creative writing have appeared in numerous literary journals, including the 2023 Emerald Coast Review, Alyss, Birmingham Poetry Review, Dark Sire, GSU Review, Ellipsis, Maple Leaf Rag, Of Poets and Poetry, and Penumbra. She won two awards in the 2023 competition of the Florida State Poets Association.

Katherine’s premiere poetry book, When Mockingbirds Sing, published in 2016 by Finishing Line Press,  includes award-winning poetry and can be purchased HERE.

Writing poems since middle school didn’t prevent Katherine from becoming a high-school dropout, but she managed to go from GED to PhD and never stopped pursuing a lifetime love affair with writing.

Visit Katherine’s profile on the Emerald Coast Writers website, like her on Facebook or Instagram, and check out her author page on Amazon.com and Goodreads.com.

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