Kirsten McDougall was born in 1974 and grew up in Wellington and Masterton. She was educated at Victoria University, graduating in 2004 with a Masters in Creative Writing. Her first book, a series of interconnected short stories, The Invisible Rider, was published by VUP in 2012. She has published stories and nonfiction in Landfall, Sport, Turbine and Tell You What: Great New Zealand Non-fiction 2016. She was the recipient of the 2013 Creative New Zealand Louis Johnson New Writer's Bursary, and won the short category of 'The Long and the Short of It' fiction competition in 2011. Kirsten works as a publicist and literary manager in Wellington.