The Three Lives of Cate Kay

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of mental illness and death by suicide.

Although The Three Lives of Cate Kay is Kate Fagan’s debut novel, she had already established a long career in writing prior to publishing this book. She is an Emmy-award-winning journalist who worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer and then for ESPN before moving to Sports Illustrated. She has also hosted her own podcasts and been a regular guest on others, and she has appeared many times on the television programs Around the Horn and First Take.

Her first full-length book was The Reappearing Act: Coming Out as Gay on a College Basketball Team Led by Born-Again Christians (2014), a memoir discussing her own experiences as a college athlete. Fagan, the daughter of basketball player Chris Fagan, played Division I basketball for the University of Colorado Boulder and professional basketball for the Colorado Chill. Fagan writes about her relationship with her father in All the Colors Came Out: A Father, a Daughter, and a Lifetime of Lessons (2021). Her father’s battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) inspired Fagan to become an advocate for others with ALS.

Additionally, Fagan was named a semifinalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing for her 2017 book