Grace E. Kelley
Grace E. Kelley is a poet, personal essayist, and speculative storyteller. Across the varied genres she explores, she writes with the intent to help her readers name what aches in their own experience, so that they can move towards greater wholeness and freedom.
Daughter of Breath is her sophomore collection of poetry, releasing in March of 2025. Her debut collection, as the Sparrow flies, was released in February 2024. You can find both at most major online retailers, or purchase a signed copy and other goodies from her shop.
To keep up with her writing journey across the genres, be sure to check out her Personal Essay & Poetry Substack at The House of Rest , and her Fiction Substack at Tell Me a Story.
Name what Aches & Learn to be Free
“These poems are medicine.”
—D’Shan Berry
My Books
Daughter of Breath : Poems
Daughter of Breath is a timely voice calling those lost in the wilderness created by church-sponsored patriarchy, misogyny, and queer phobia, to grieve, heal, and reclaim their authentic voices. Born from the ache of deeply personal, yet all too common experiences—the poems in Daughter of Breath will help you:
- create space to name what aches and to grieve the harm that has been caused you.
- reclaim your divinely given identity as Beloved, just as you are.
- move into the world with the power, freedom, and joy that can only come from being your whole self.
Including poems on topics such as: sexual abuse, medical gas lighting, generational trauma, wrestling with a queer identity, christian patriarchy, deconstruction, female friendship, vocation, and contemplative spiritual practices—Daughter of Breath will help you name the aches of your own experience, so you can move towards greater freedom and wholeness as a beloved child of the Divine.
as the Sparrow flies : Poems
What if the distance between you, and what you have loved and lost, is not so far after all? What if, as the Sparrow flies, there’s a way through loneliness, grief, betrayal, and the aches of sacrificial love, that feels lighter—more freeing?
Such is the journey the reader takes in as the Sparrow flies. “A companion for the aches of love,” as the Sparrow flies takes the reader on a deeply personal, yet universal journey. Through the aches of long distance relationships and starting over in new places; to the agony of grief in the loss of loved one; to the anguish of betrayals, friendship breakups and religious trauma; and finally—through the beautiful and sharp ache that is loving ones children—discover the way that “loving’s ache/ and every break/ find their solace/ in the Divine/ embrace.”
Accompanied by exquisite, original artwork by the talented Bethanie Pack, as the Sparrow flies takes the reader on a poetic journey through the nuanced layers of the grief that comes with love.
Grace E. Kelley 