Katy Hays is a writer and adjunct art history professor in California, where she teaches rural students from Truckee to Tecopa. She holds a Master of Arts in art history from Williams College and pursued her Ph.D. at University of California, Berkeley. Having previously worked at major art institutions, including The Clark Art Institute and San Francisco MoMA, she now lives with her husband and dog, Queso, in Olympic Valley, Calif. "The Cloisters" is her first novel.