Mary Potter Kenyon graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a BA in Psychology, and is a certified grief counselor. She is the Program Coordinator for the Shalom Spirituality Center in Dubuque, Iowa. Mary is widely published in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies, including ten Chicken Soup books. Her essay on the connection between grief and creativity was published in the January/February 2013 issue of “Poets & Writers” magazine and she has several devotions included in the NIV Hope in the Mourning Bible released by Zondervan in 2013. Mary conducts writing workshops and does public speaking on the topics of writing, utilizing your creativity in your everyday life, and finding hope and healing in grief. She had been a keynote speaker at the Iowa City Book Festival, Galena Lit-Fest, St. Thomas More Church in Coralville and the American Martyrs Retreat House in Cedar Falls. She has taught writing workshops at Hawkeye Community College in Cedar Falls, NICC, libraries, and annually at the Cedar Falls Christian Writer’s conference every June since 2012. She is the author of Coupon Crazy: The Science, the Savings, and the Stories Behind America’s Extreme Obsession, Chemo-Therapist: How Cancer Cured a Marriage, the award-winning Refined By Fire: A Journey of Grief and Grace, Mary & Me: A Lasting Link Through Ink, co-written with Mary Jedlicka Humston and Expressive Writing for Healing. Her book on creativity, Called to Be Creative, will be released by Familius Publishing in September 2020.
