Katherine O'Donnell was born in Cork and worked briefly as a journalist before going to Boston College on a Fulbright Scholarship. She has been an activist since her college days in UCC, being involved in a number of campaigns, most notably the Justice for Magdalenes Campaign. She is Associate Professor for the History of Ideas in University College Dublin and has published extensively in the history of the Irish Enlightenment and the history of gender and sexuality. Slant is her first novel. She is also the co-author Ireland's Magdalene Laundries: A Campaign for Justice and editor of several works on the Magdalene Laundries and Gender Studies.
