Ross Klatte was born in Minneapolis and raised on his parents' dairy farm just west of the city. After service in the US Navy as a journalist and obtaining a degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota, he worked as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor in Chicago and as a copy editor in Detroit before emigrating with his wife to Canada in 1971. He is the author of Leaving the Farm (Oolichan Books, 2007), a memoir, the opening chapter of which in 1990 won first prize in the personal essay division of the CBC Literary Competition. In 2011 he was shortlisted for the Journey Prize for a short story first published in The New Orphic Review, and he wrote the text for Selkirks Spectacular (Keokee Books, 2014), a book of photos and text about the cross-border drive through the Selkirk Mountains in southeastern British Columbia, northeastern Washington, and the Idaho Panhandle. Before moving to Canada, he published fiction in US literary and men's magazines.