Kathy Friedman studied creative writing at UBC and the University of Guelph. She has been a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and the Writers’ Trust Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. Her writing has appeared in publications including Grain, Geist, PRISM international, The New Quarterly, and Canadian Notes & Queries. Her first collection of short stories, All the Shining People, was published to acclaim by House of Anansi in 2022.

A passionate creative writing instructor, Kathy is a professor in Humber College's Bachelor of Creative and Professional Writing program. She has also taught writing to diverse adult learners through Workman Arts, The 519, Progress Place, CAMH, the Toronto Public Library, and the University of Guelph's creative writing certificate program.

In addition, Kathy is the co-founder and artistic director of InkWell Workshops, which delivers free creative writing workshops to people with mental health and addiction issues. She is the publisher of four literary anthologies with in-house imprint InkWell Books, and she edited the anthology Brilliance Is the Clothing I Wear, published by Dundurn Press in June 2021.