Author Kathe L. Palka graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in 1983, having double majored in Economics and American Civilization. She then pursued a short and unfulfilling career as a banker. She has since spent several years as a tutor and tutor trainer for Literacy Volunteers of America, co-edited the literary quarterly The Higginsville Reader from 1996 through 2002, was a selection editor for U. S. 1 Worksheets from 2006 through 2007, Vol. 51 and 52 and is production editor for Vol. 53, 2008 and Vol. 54, 2009.

Ms. Palka’s poetry first began to appear in literary journals and magazines in the mid 1990s. Her work has more recently been published in Alehouse, Bogg Magazine, bottle rockets, The Bucks County Writer, Cezanne’s Carrot, Ekphrasis, Exit 13, Frogpond, The Journal of New Jersey Poets, Modern Haiku, paper wasp, The Penwood Review, Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought, Poet Lore, Potomac Review, The River, Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine and Windhover: A Journal of Christian Literature. She has had work included in a number of anthologies including To Love One Another: Poems Celebrating Marriage published by Grayson Books, 2002 and seed packets: an anthology of flower haiku, bottle rockets press, 2010. She is an active member of the U.S. 1 Poets' Cooperative. Her first poetry collection, The Grace of Light, was published in 2004 by Finishing Line Press as part of their New Women’s Voices Series. She has had work nominated for the Pushcart Prize and placed third in the 2009 Gerald Brady Senryu Contest.   

Ms. Palka lives near Flemington, New Jersey with her husband of 28 years, Joseph, and their two sons. She is an avid gardener and an ordained deacon at Clover Hill Reformed Church, where she is also an alto in the choir. In her spare time, whenever possible, she loves to wander the parklands of her native state.


Ms. Palka can be reached at k-jpalka@comcast.net