© Stephen Rankin

Kate Beaton was born and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. After graduating from Mount Allison University with a degree in History and Anthropology, she moved to Alberta in search of a job to pay off her student loans. In the years she spent there, Beaton began creating webcomics under the title Hark! A Vagrant, which quickly gained a worldwide following.

The compilations of her acclaimed Hark! A Vagrant and Step Aside, Pops strips spent several months on the New York Times bestselling graphic novels list and appeared on best-of-the-year lists from publications including Time, The Washington Post, Vulture, and NPR Books. These compilations have also won several awards including the Eisner, Ignatz, Harvey and Doug Wright.

Her first graphic novel, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, published in Canada by Drawn & Quarterly in 2022 and in Spain by Norma Editorial in 2023, is one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of recent years. Beaton's memoir of the two years she spent working in the Alberta oil sands deals with issues such as the environmental crisis, precarious work, emigration and toxic masculinity.

In the field of illustrated children's books, she has published King Baby and The Princess and The Pony, a work that won the British Children's Book Award and was adapted into an animated series by DreamWorks Animation for Apple TV+ under the title Pinecone & Pony. Norma Editorial's Astronave imprint has published both works in Spain and will present her new album, Shark Girl, at Comic Barcelona 2025.