Khaliela Wright grew up near Sandpoint, Idaho as a free-range wild-child, running willy-nilly through forest and field, not to mention, splashing about in many of Bonner County’s watering holes. These experiences fostered an early and abiding love for the great outdoors. After high school, she attended the University of Idaho and Washington State University, earning degrees from both. This left her highly conflicted over who to root for during the annual football game between the border rivals. She resolved that inner conflict by simply rooting for both teams.

After university, Khaliela spent several years teaching college-level economics courses and has multiple published works in the field (which are not nearly as interesting to read as fiction). Currently, she is employed with the U.S. Census Bureau, gathering information on housing vacancy rates, cost and standard of living, and income and employment trends in the Idaho panhandle.

When not immersed in business and economic statistics for work, she writes feature articles and columns as a freelancer and occasionally creates political cartoons for regional news outlets. In addition, she has received multiple awards for her short fiction. In 2016, she founded the Palouse Writers Guild, a non-profit service organization whose goals are bringing professional development to authors, championing indie books sales, and helping self-publishers navigate the business side of writing. Combining her love of books and business, she founded Hart & Hind Publishing Company in 2021.

Khaliela lives in rural Idaho, surrounded by a bevy of feral cats. Unwilling to become known as ‘The Cat Lady of Potlatch,’ she traps any who dare take up residence on her property and foists them onto other people. (She would appreciate it if you would call the Latah County Commissioners and tell them they need to focus on animal control since the local animal shelter refuses to take stray or feral animals, which has left her wondering just what the hell the animal shelter is for.)

Khaliela delights in being anything but the quintessential small-town girl, and like most people with too much time on their hands, she is also working on a novel.

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