About Kate Ristau

About Kate Ristau, The Short Version:

Kate Ristau is an author, folklorist, and the Executive Director of Willamette Writers. She is the author of three middle grade series, Clockbreakers, Mythwakers, and Wylde Wings, and the young adult series, Shadow Girl. You can read her essays in The New York Times and The Washington PostIn her ideal world, magic and myth combine to create memorable stories with unforgettable characters. Until she finds that world, she’ll live in a house in Oregon, where they found a sword behind the water heater and fairies in the backyard. Find her online at kateristau.com.

Kate Ristau laughing with Gigi Little and Kathleen Lane

About Kate Ristau, The Long Version

Kate Ristau is a folklorist and an author. She first fell into mythology as a child, staring at the pictures in her mother’s Greek mythology books and trying to understand the magic and the life within the stories. She kept searching for those stories in books, movies, and in the words of her family and friends. She followed those words across the ocean, studying Celtic mythology and literature in Ireland. After volunteering with AmeriCorps, she moved to Oregon, where she completed her Masters Degree in folklore at the University of Oregon. Along the way, she learned to write her own stories — stories of magic and myth, fairies and folklore.

She taught at the University of Oregon and Western Oregon University, and despite her love for teaching writing, she abandoned her red pens to build her own worlds. She wrote a grammar handbook (full of dragons and elves) with her fellow professor, Maren Bradley Anderson. It’s called Commas: An Irreverent PrimerAnderson and Ristau also edited an anthology of poems, essays, and short stories called Coarse Grounds: A Coffee Anthology. 

Shadow Girl Saga

Her first novel, Shadow Girl, was re-published by Not a Pipe Publishing in 2018. Shadow Girl tells the story of fairy teen Áine, who is haunted by a fiery dream, where her mother loses her mind and her father makes a devastating choice. Áine escapes into the Shadowlands to discover the secrets of her family and her past. But the moment her foot crosses the threshold, Áine is thrust into a war that has been raging for centuries. Guardians, fire fey, and a rising darkness threaten the light, and Áine must learn to fight in the shadows — or die in the flames.

The second book in the Shadow Girls Saga, Shadow Queene, released in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic.

About Kate Ristau with Shadow Queene and Crown

Clockbreakers Series

Her time-travel/mythology series, Clockbreakers, launched in October 2016. Clockbreakers is a middle grade novel that tells Charlie’s story. You see, on her eleventh birthday, Charlie receives a magic key to go back in time. But before she blows out her candles, she rolls her wheelchair right into Ancient Greece with her best friend Maria and her former best friend Trent. She’s a Clockbreaker on an action-packed adventure with a mission: to save her father, and perhaps even save the world.

The story continues with Clockbreakers: Morrigan’s Revenge. In book two, Charlie’s dad is gone, and she’s on a magic adventure to get him back! But first – fifth grade. She rolls her wheelchair into her classroom and then straight into an Ancient Irish battle. But this is not the time travel she expected. Betrayed by her friends, Charlie faces the wrath of the goddess, Morrigan, and the warriors think she is one of the fairies. Can Cuchulain — the hero of Irish folklore — help? Or will she be trapped back in an ancient myth forever?

Clockbreakers: The End of Time releases in May of 2021! Until then, she’ll keep writing, and spending her time with Willamette Writers, where she was the Executive Director. Now, she helps writers through their Resource Council.

About Kate Ristau speaking to kids

Kate loves writing, and in her ideal world, magic and myth combine to create memorable stories with unforgettable characters. Until she finds that world, she will live in a house in Oregon where she found a sword behind the water heater and fairies in the backyard.