KATE BEATON grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada. She earned a bachelor's degree in history and anthropology at Mount Allison University. She presently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

She has primarily published her comics online at the website Hark, A Vagrant! and that material has been collected as the books Never Learn Anything From History (Topatoco), Hark, A Vagrant! (Drawn & Quarterly), and Step Aside, Pops! (Drawn & Quarterly). Her work has also appeared in various publications including The New Yorker and Walrus Magazine.