Kelli Lynn Grey is my pen name. The Grey Way chronicles my experiences as an Atlanta-based, neuro-divergent writer mom. I really just got started being myself at age 38—following the end of my 13-year marriage, the arrival of COVID, an advanced cancer diagnosis, and the realization that I grew up with a schizophrenic mother.
My early professional experience includes:
Working as a middle school teacher
Managing a global-facing steel percussion business
Collaborating with Peachtree NORML to create the column NORML Mom
Reading oracle cards in a crystal shop
Interviewing bands for The Rome Unscene
Running a small-scale intentional community space with my then husband
Volunteering with Amnesty, UNICEF, Make-a-Wish, Common Ground Athens, Coosa River Basin Initiative, ACLU, and AMP Rome
Interning with the now-defunct independent publishing company Hill Street Press
More recently, my words have appeared within Healthline, Mashable, Inside the Jar, and Eloquent Magazine while I freelanced with Wellstar Health System, Six Red Marbles, Verma Media, and Ohio Medical Alliance (home of Georgia Marijuana Card).
I once wrote a chapbook titled Harvest, and I’m currently working on full-length collection called Queen of Wands.
However, I’m finding my sweet spot contributing regularly to Medium, Georgia Center for Nonprofits, and Education Without Limits.
This newsletter gives you a chance to better connect with and support my work—both online and in-person (sometimes). It also functions as a doorway to the discovery of more authors and opportunities.
You’ll quickly see, the stuff I write isn’t exactly shiny.
As my penname implies, it’s grey, meaning that it doesn’t quite jive with a world that’s stuck in black and white thinking, or that believes sparkly band-aids are somehow more beautiful than the scars they hide.
I’m really into scars. And tears. And laughter. And, if you are too, I say let’s explore what it’s like to be grey together—with some insight into parenting, pot, poetry, professions, and politics gleaned along the way.