Kristen Millares Young is the author of the memoir-in-essays Desire Lines, forthcoming from Red Hen Press on October 6, 2026. Called “searching, generous, and unrelenting” by Melissa Febos, “alive with style and poetic lyricism” by Weike Wang, and “explosive and daring” by Luis Alberto Urrea, Desire Lines is a forensic investigation into the emotional topography of being a woman, a writer, and a mother.  “In Desire Lines, Kristen Millares Young explores womanhood, human rights, and identity with a moral imperative and artistry that few can achieve,” writes Brandon Hobson. “She is an immense literary talent, and this remarkable book should be read by all.” 

Her debut novel Subduction was named a staff pick by The Paris Review. Winner of Nautilus and IPPY awards, Subduction was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and named a finalist for two International Latino Book Awards and Foreword Indies Book of the Year. Her essays, book reviews, and investigations appear in the Washington Post, the Guardian, Literary Hub, and the anthologies No Contact, Advanced Creative Nonfiction, Latina Outsiders, and Alone Together, winner of a Washington State Book Award. 

Kristen was the researcher for the New York Times team that produced “Snow Fall,” which won a Pulitzer Prize. A 2025 resident of the Storyknife Writers Retreat and Reykjavík Writes, she is the editor of Seismic: Seattle, City of Literature, a Washington State Book Award finalist. She teaches in the low residency MFA program of Oregon State University-Cascades.