Kate Gale is the author of several poetry collections, including Mating Season (2004) and Fishers of Men (2000), as well as the novels Lake of Fire (2000) and Water Moccasins (1994). She is the founder and managing editor of Red Hen Press and editor of the Los Angeles Review.

Gale is the author of four librettos: Rio de Sangre with composer Don Davis which was performed in part at Disney Hall in 2005; Paradises Lost, co-authored with Ursula K. LeGuin and composer Stephen Andrew Taylor, and performed in part at the New York City Opera in 2006; Kindred, adapted from the novel by Octavia Butler, with composer Billy Childs; and Inner Circle, adapted from the novel by T.C. Boyle, with composer Daniel Felsenfeld. She lives in Los Angeles.