Kacy Tellessen was born in Spokane and raised in Spangle, Washington, a small farming community that clings to the edge of the Palouse. Tellessen joined the Marine Corps infantry directly out of high school and deployed twice to Iraq as an infantry machine gunner with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, from 2005-2009. His work has appeared in The New York Times and 0-Dark-Thirty literary journal.