Kristen Millares Young is a novelist, journalist, essayist, and the author of the memoir Desire Lines and the novel Subduction, both from Red Hen Press. Called “searching, generous, and unrelenting” by Melissa Febos, Desire Lines is a forensic investigation into the emotional topography of being a woman, a writer, and a mother.

Her novel Subduction was a staff pick of The Paris Review and deemed “whip-smart” by the Washington Post and “a brilliant debut” by the Seattle Times. Winner of Nautilus and IPPY awards, Subduction was a finalist for two International Latino Book Awards and Foreword Indies Book of the Year.

Her essays, book reviews, and investigations appear in the Washington Post, the Guardian, Literary Hub, and the anthologies No Contact, Advanced Creative Nonfiction, Latina Outsiders, and Alone Together. Kristen was the researcher for the New York Times team that produced “Snow Fall,” which won a Pulitzer Prize.

A former Prose Writer-in-Residence at Hugo House, she is the editor of Seismic, a finalist for a 2021 Washington State Book Award. In 2025, Kristen was in residence for Storyknife Writers Retreat and Reykjavík Writes. She is a co-founder and former board chair of InvestigateWest.

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