She earned her MFA in creative writing at West Virginia University, is a contributing editor to The Tusculum Review, and edited the anthology Tongue Screws and Testimonies: Poems, Stories, and Essays Inspired by the Martyrs Mirror. Her stories and essays have appeared in Shenandoah, The Cresset, Relief, The Journal of the Center for Mennonite Writing, Rhubarb, and Dreamseeker. Kirsten lives in Briery Branch with her husband, a bevy of backyard chickens and ducks, several hives of honeybees, and Sophie the cat. She covenants with Shalom Mennonite congregation in Harrisonburg, Va.