Katie Anderson Howell’s appreciation for stories started with her grandfather’s tall tales, blossomed in high school when she told ghost stories to tourists in a haunted mansion, and continues with her passion for sci-fi audiobooks. Her multitude of interests have led her along a path that has made her a teacher, advocate, and business woman. Sometimes, she dabbles in academics, and has written two books with the University of Iowa Press: Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide (2018) and Disability and Fandom (2025). She’s written poems about everything from nuclear waste to dildos to skeletons and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Currently, she owns and operates Glow with Katie, an esthetics studio focused on inclusive skincare. Her two children are the bravest and most creative people she knows. Raising them is exhausting and wonderful. Her dog tolerates her. As a queer, disabled woman, Katie writes science fiction about other queer, disabled people finding their way in space accompanied by a sentient mushroom.