A coal miner’s granddaughter, Tess Collins was born and raised in a crater. Yes, really—a crater formed by the impact of an asteroid millions of years ago, where her hometown of Middlesboro, Kentucky was eventually built. Tess spent her younger years in a one-room Carnegie Library, reading around the room. She started with Blueberries for Sal and ended with War and Peace, at which point she thought, I want to do that.
That ambition took her to the University of Kentucky, where she majored in journalism and creative writing, and eventually to a Ph.D. from The Union Institute and University, with a focus on theatre management and producing. She is the author of eight novels and a non-fiction book on theater management. She now lives in San Francisco, where on a clear day she can see the Golden Gate Bridge, a long way from the crater, but exactly where she was always headed.
