Kerith Mickelson

Freelance Writer Nonfiction

I'm an enthusiastic freelance writer and teacher, inspired by the gritty and spiritual angles of chronic illness, wellness, motherhood, forgiveness, and the sacred in the everyday.

I seek to uncover unusual voices: the refugee, the kid in foster care. The people who are caring for them.

My larger project is a forthcoming collection, A Hundred Days, combining essays, guided active exercises, and meditations to help readers consider their lives anew, clear space for self healing, and enjoy a story they can relate to. I am querying potential agents to represent my work.

I've raised three college-aged children, am committed to a vibrant writing group, I teach Tai-Chi on Mondays and high school English everyday. I also coordinate events for a non-profit called Swappowplus that brings skateboarding and life lessons to kids in foster care.

I'm an award-winning author, published in Notre Dame Magazine, Her View From Home, DripLit, and HuffPost. I've been featured on the Continuum Podcast for the IBC.

I love hearing from readers, editors, and friends.
If you’d like to get in touch about writing or collaboration, please reach out—I’d be delighted to connect.

📧 Email: kerith.mickelson@guhsdaz.org
Or use the contact form to send a message.

If you’d like to know when new essays or meditations appear, you can sign up for occasional updates—no clutter, promise.

I hold a degree in the Program of Liberal Studies from the University of Notre Dame, where I fell in love with Western thinkers surrounding soul work. 

I went on to earn an MFA in Literature, studying modern feminist writers and Shakespeare, before spending years teaching in Alaska, Flagstaff, post-Soviet Uzbekistan, and Phoenix. 

At thirty-three, I met my partner—an impossibly understanding person—and together we raised three extraordinary kids. Somewhere between carpools and triathlon training, I discovered the need to return to contemplation. 

And I discovered my creative self.

A recent-ish diagnosis of heart failure due to sarcoidosis, a mysterious condition, is a challenge and a teacher. Alongside medicine, I’ve leaned into Buddhist, Taoist, and Korean Body & Brain practices, where movement and self-healing meditation meet. These shape not only how I heal, but how I write.

Today, I teach English at my old high school, guiding a wildly diverse group of the biggest hearted students through The Crucible, The Great Gatsby, and Just Mercy. We stretch, breathe, and meditate daily before we read; the pull-up bar in my doorway gets as much use as the whiteboard.

I think of myself as a durational artist--someone who works in time. My writing life begins with silence and unfolds slowly. I stretch, breathe, and listen before I reach for language. Most essays start with something ordinary—a conversation in the classroom, a memory from motherhood—and through attention, it becomes something sacred.

I write in cycles: clutter, clarity, clutter again. Revision is a communal practice for me. My writitng group clears away the crap and helps me find what true underneath.