We’re so pleased to introduce Katie Field, our new outreach coordinator & associate editor, who will be helping us grow our community and expand our public events programming in Austin. Katie first entered our orbit during our Summer Workshop in 2023, and we’ve been lucky to have them as part of the magazine’s family ever since—reading submissions with gusto, selling more ASF T-shirts than anyone thought possible at AWP, and generally bringing their sunny, kind, and gentle energy into every project they work on. We talked to Katie a little about their vision for the new role:
What drew you to this position?
I participated in ASF‘s Memorial Day workshop in 2023, which is how I met many of the staff members and joined the magazine as an Assistant Editor. ASF quickly became one of my favorite things about living in Austin (so much so that my partner often remarked, “You’re always in such a good mood after you hang out with those folks!”). So it seemed like a natural fit, after finishing grad school, to take this chance to be more involved in a space that’s already been so rewarding.
What’s one thing you want folks in the Austin writing community—and beyond—to know about you and what you are excited to bring to our events programming?
One thing that is perhaps less well-known about me is that I grew up on a small island where my parents published and edited a weekly newspaper. This was before the age of social media, when people relied more heavily on print newspapers to find out what was going on in town. My parents believed strongly that the newspaper was at the heart of the community and went above and beyond to report on the life of this small town, everything from elections to environmental hazards to Little League scores. They also hosted several events throughout the year that allowed the community to gather in the name of celebrating the paper, but also the place, and brought a sense of unity and pride to the island. I’ve therefore seen firsthand how story, and particularly story via the materiality of print, can offer so much to a community on and off the page. I am really excited to contribute to ASF‘s event programming and to help the journal continue to be an accessible gathering place for writers, readers, and anyone else who wants to celebrate storytelling together. We are going to have a lot of fun!
Is there a particular short story that you’d like to recommend to our audience?
I always recommend the short story “Wants” by Grace Paley. It’s been breaking my heart in new and interesting ways ever since I first read it, almost twenty years ago.
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Katie Field is a writer and academic living in Austin. Their writing has appeared in So To Speak, Islandia Journal, and Women’s Health magazine. Their short story “The Harvest” was anthologized in the Best of the Net in 2026, and they are currently working on a novel and a collection of short stories.
Katie received a PhD in Comparative Literature from UT Austin in 2025, with a focus on writing from the US and the Caribbean. Katie has received support from the Harry Ransom Center, the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, the Key West Literary Seminar, and the UT Graduate School, among others.
Katie has been told many times that they are a champion of story, and they love this description. They are so excited to bring this energy to ASF.