She writes under various pseudonyms in multiple genres, including science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, and mainstream.
She edited The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction for six years, from mid-1991 through mid-1997, winning one Hugo Award as Best Professional Editor.
Beginning in July 2010,[3] Rusch had a regular column in the bi-monthly The Grantville Gazettes e-zine called Notes from The Buffer Zone[4] until the magazine's demise in August 2022.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes mystery novels using the pen-name "Kris Nelscott", featuring Smokey Dalton, an African-American unlicensed private investigator, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith use the common pseudonym "Sandy Schofield" for a part of their collaborative works.