Kate Cumiskey is a writer living and working in coastal Central Florida. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, where she studied with Mark Cox, Mark Doty, Clyde Edgerton, Philip Gerard, Phillip Furia and her mentor, the late Robert Creeley, whom she first met and worked with at Atlantic Center for the Arts. There, she also worked with Nick Flynn, Carolyn Kizer, and Peter Meinke, Florida's Poet Laureate. She is a retired Autism expert from the state department of education at the University of Central Florida, where she also taught nonfiction. She holds a Bachelor's in special education from the University of Florida. With her partner Mikel Cumiskey she has four sons.