Mary Potter Kenyon graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a BA in Psychology, and is a certified grief counselor. She works at the James Kennedy Public Library in Dyersville as the Senior Services librarian. She is widely published in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies, including five 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 for libraries, NICC and Hawkeye community college, and for writing conferences. She does public speaking on the topics of writing, utilizing your talents in your everyday life, and finding hope and healing in grief. 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, and Mary & Me: A Lasting Link Through Ink, co-written with Mary Jedlicka Humston. Her grief journal will be released in early 2018. She is currently working on a book on creativity. Mary lives in Manchester, Iowa, with two of her eight children.
Hello. I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading your essay entitled, Why We Write, in Poets & Writers Magazine. I thought that it must be simultaneously painful and therapeutic to share such difficult experiences, such as the loss of loved-ones. Life and death are part of our existence, and our experiences contribute to our creativity as writers. I was also enlightened to the idea that our loved ones, even when they pass on, give us inspiration to do good things, like write. This was the first time I have heard of you or read anything by you. I will read this site to learn more. Thank you. ~Joe Navarro