About

My name is Kelly Barnhill and I write books. Some of my books are for kids and some are for grown-ups (or teenagers, or old people, or really any creature that ever had enough time on its hands to learn how to read). I write fiction and nonfiction – things that are Literary and Speculative and Informative and Funny and Frightening and Lyrical and Odd. Sometimes, I do all of these things at once.

I wrote a book called The Mostly True Story of Jack. Little, Brown published it. And some people liked it and some people didn’t and lots of people didn’t care either way. I wrote another book called Iron Hearted Violet. Little Brown will publish it next year. No one has read it yet – except for me, my husband and my editor – so I don’t know what anyone will think. But really, whether or not anyone likes any book – my book, your book, your neighbor’s brother’s best friend’s book – is none of my business. I just need to keep writing books. That’s my job. And I just need to make the next one better than the one before it.

I used the word “just” in that sentence to make my work sound unserious and casual and  devil-may-care and what have you. But that is a ruse, alas. Writers work very hard. We labor over every word. Words, if you must know, are heavy, cumbersome things that must be strapped to our backs and carried to the tops of tall mountains and balanced on the heads of pins. We do this work every day, even when it crushes us. Even when it makes us cry. Even when it sends us sailing into the stars. This is why we deserve chocolate. And space ships.

I write sometimes for this blog, and I’m also  part of a group blog made up of some pretty talented Young Adult and Middle Grade authors, called The YA-5 (theya5.blogspot.com). I enjoy both blogs very much. Outside of that, my life is built on books. I read books, and think about books, and talk about books. In my house, the books mingle, multiply and conquer. There are cities of books, regions and empires. They crowd and compete for space, they swallow resources and built teetering towers that stretch from the floor to the sky.

I was a reading teacher with the Minneapolis Public Schools, and later taught reading at a drop-in center for homeless youth. Now, I teach writing through the Writers and Artists in the Schools Program, which is, in my opinion, the Greatest Job in America. I’m also raising three insanely brilliant children (evil geniuses –genii? – all of them, hell-bent on one day ruling the world) and as both a Teaching Artist and as Mom, I spend quite a bit of time thinking about stories – and the relationship that human beings have with stories we tell. I believe in stories. I trust in stories. Storytelling is hardwired into our brains: it dictates how we think, how we understand the world, and how we make the world new again.

I’m lucky enough to live in a city with a strong community of writers. I’m even more lucky to be connected to a whole world of writers online who feed my soul every day. And, I’m represented by Steve Malk at Writers House, which means I’m the luckiest writer in the world.