Kim Ponders grew up near Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Syracuse University. In 1989, she was commissioned into the Air Force as a second lieutenant. She flew as an air weapons controller on the E-3 AWACS during the Gulf War, becoming one of the first American women to fly in combat. She spent several years flying missions in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, providing air supplies to the Kurds in northen Iraq and monitoring the Iraqi no-fly zone. These experiences formed the basis of her first novel, The Art of Uncontrolled Flight.

She later lived in Korea and Germany, where she earned an M.S. in international relations. After returning to the United States, she attended the Warren Wilson M.F.A. Program for Writers. Still a reserve officer, she teaches fiction for A Room of Her Own, the largest women’s writing foundation in the country.

Her new novel, The Last Blue Mile, is due out in May, 2007.