She is the author of the narrative nonfiction book Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town, which has been featured in The Oprah Magazine, Metropolis, Ms. Magazine, The Onion's AV Club, Plenty Magazine, among others, as well as on The Brian Lehrer Show. Her essays and articles have appeared in such places as The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, Newsday, Elle Décor, Time Out New York, and MrBellersNeighborhood.com.

Kelly has a BA from Vassar College and an MFA in literary nonfiction from Columbia University. She teaches writing at mediabistro.com and in the undergraduate writing program and Journalism Graduate School at Columbia University and has been the co-director of the KGB Nonfiction Reading Series in the East Village for three years. She lives in Manhattan and northeast Pennsylvania with her husband, the painter Mark Milroy.

influential, interesting,