Title: Daughter of Breath: Poems

Author: Grace E. Kelley

Publication Date: March 4th, 2025

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.

Here’s what others are saying about Daughter of Breath:

“In her brave book, Daughter of Breath, Grace E. Kelley bears witness not only to her own personal traumas, but to our communal ones as well. In a world where so many are devalued, Kelley finds solace and resistance in a feminist Jesus whose actual anti-empire vision has no place for hate. Reader, I urge you to draw near and listen as Kelley sings back into existence a world in which “fear is not [our] birthright–/Joy is.”

—Sasha Steensen, Author of Well and Everything Awake

“Grace E. Kelley’s heartfelt words give voice to harm, especially in the church, and to the healing that is already within us.”

—K.J. Ramsey, therapist and author  of The Book of Common Courage

“I read (and write) a lot of poetry, and it takes something pretty special to light a fire in my soul. Daughter of Breath is something pretty special. These poems aren’t flowery or obscure; they’re poignant, piercing, and a punch in the gut. Grace E. Kelley poured her heart into these words, and there is deep healing in and between every line. What a freaking gift.”

—Marla Taviano, author of unbelieve, jaded, and whole

“Stirring and unapologetic, this collection offers the angry a rallying cry, the broken a balm, and the overlooked an open door to belonging.” 

—Elizabeth Berget, poet and author of the popular substack Back of the Flock

“Grace Kelley’s words beckon and embolden readers to believe in their healing. Pain can often take our breath away, overpowering us and widening the fractures within us. But Kelley invites us to make space for our wounds, to give them oxygen, to see each jagged edge of our scars as beautiful—all in the service of casting off the voice of fear and moving toward our collective flourishing.”

 —Jenai Auman, writer, artist, and author of Othered

“To paraphrase a striking opening line from a poem in this book, Grace Kelley has, with this superb collection, claimed herself, her story, and the way in which she is, at last, allowing herself to inhabit her own life. If you have ever felt yourself to be a ‘dweller on the edge’, especially within the church, then these poems might just be what you have always been searching for.”

—Liezel Graham, author, poet, and textile artist

“In Daughter of Breath, Grace E. Kelley invites us deep inside an intimate, complex, gorgeous point of view. From the raw and unfiltered angle of her pen on paper we know what it’s like to have a bent (but not broken) faith, we feel the pain of being hurt by those you trusted, and we ultimately know the peace of being a beloved child of God. She fearlessly tackles patriarchy both inside and outside church walls. She sings a song of courageous womanhood and anything but frail queerness. She shows us what it’s like to hurt and to heal and to love and to be gentle and to be human. This collection of poetry is breathtaking and important beyond words. The form and content were sharp when an edge was needed but soft and warm in the end. I loved, and learned from, every page.” 

—Matthew Mattson, Creator and Director of Global Ministry | BETWEEN

About the Author:

Grace E. Kelley is a poet, personal essayist, and speculative storyteller. She lives in the hills of the Palmer Divide in Colorado where she and her husband raise five children and lots of vegetables on their small regenerative family farm. You can find her poetry and personal essays at The House of Rest (graceekelley.substack.com), her fiction projects at Tell Me a Story (graceekelleytellmeastory.substack.com), or find her on Instagram @graceekelleywrites.