Katherine Payne (née Sanders) is a writer, translator, and teacher. She is a PhD student in comparative literature at CUNY Graduate Center where she specializes in 20^th and 21^st century American literature. Her dissertation will focus on the intersection of nonfiction content and poetic forms in 20^th century poets. She is the co-translator of Power of Gentleness: Meditations on the Risk of Living by Anne Dufourmantelle which won a French Voices Award. She received her MFA in creative nonfiction writing and literary translation from Columbia University. Her work has appeared in Apogee, BOMB, and Words Without Borders among other publications. In addition to teaching writing and literature in New York City colleges, Katherine also leads free creative writing workshops.