Katia was born in the Black Sea town of Odesa, moving to Melbourne, Australia, at the age of ten. She holds an Arts/Law degree from Monash University and a Graduate Diploma of Publishing and Editing from RMIT. Katia was a managing editor with Five Islands Press from 2010 to 2019.

Over the past fifteen years Katia has edited for Dorling Kindersley, Melbourne University Publishing, Wild Dingo Press, Ventura Press, Gazebo Books, Cambridge University Press, Affirm Press, Transit Lounge, Echo Books and Hardie Grant. In her work for private clients, Katia specialises in manuscript appraisal and structural editing, especially memoir, poetry and literary fiction.

Katia is also a poet and memoirist and was the recipient of the Eleanor Dark Residential Fellowship at Varuna in 2022 and the Bundanon Artists’ Residency in 2024. Her memoir, The Swift Dark Tide, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize in 2024. She teaches in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.