Kaitlin Lavinder | Author

Kaitlin Lavinder is a published fiction author based in Colorado. She writes surrealist literary fiction. She is the author of the upcoming debut novella The Chrysanthemums, which was recently long-listed for the Santa Fe Writers Project 2025 Literary Awards.

She has published in Hypertext Magazine, BlazeVOX, and Jabber Literary. She has held fiction writing residencies at Ragdale, Washington Island Writers’ Retreat, and The Himalayan Writing Retreat. Previously, she was a foreign affairs journalist in Washington, DC, where she published in Quartz Ideas, Air & Space Power Journal, and many other outlets. She has an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in Journalism from Temple University.

She enjoys coniferous forests, western grisette mushrooms, the moon, and being with her cats. She has hiked through the hills of Uttarakhand in India, the Białowieża Forest in Poland, and Nikkō National Park in Japan. She has lived in London and Berlin. She has dived off cliffs in the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales and sea kayaked the Algarve coast in Portugal. She has run a 30 mile footrace amongst the red pines of Wisconsin and backpacked the United States with the love of her life.

Follow her on Instagram: @kaitlinlavinderauthor