Bio

CANDICE KELSEY's debut book of poetry, Still I am Pushing, released March of 2020 with Finishing Line Press. She has been researching and writing, both creatively and academically, for decades. She holds her B.A. (Miami University) and M.A. (LMU) in literature and is inspired by Nelly Sachs, Linda Pastan, Zora Neale Hurston, Herman Melville, Billy Collins, Anne Carson, and David Sedaris. Candice teaches English at a private Yeshiva girls’ high school in Los Angeles, where she has been inspired to write her blog Don’t Nachas ‘til You Try Us. Her first book explored adolescent identity in the age of social media and was recognized as an Amazon.com Top Ten Parenting Book in 2007. While its title, Generation MySpace: Helping Your Teen Survive Online Adolescence, appears outdated, the sound research and insightful commentary are quite relevant in today’s Tik Tok, Snapchat, and Insta landscape.

Her poetry has appeared in Poets Reading the News, Poet Lore, The Cortland Review, North Dakota Quarterly and many other journals. She feels honored that her poem “The Birth of President Trump” was included in Sibling Rivalry Press’ special issue If You Can Hear This: Poems in Protest of an American Inauguration. A finalist for Poetry Quarterly's Rebecca Lard Award and recipient of honorable mention in Common Ground Review’s 2019 poetry contest, Candice’s creative nonfiction was nominated for a 2019 Pushcart Prize.

Candice is the co-founder of a private high school, has served as an essay evaluator for the College Board and the U.S. Department of Education, volunteered as a fiction reader for The New England Review, and continues to foster a love of writing in today’s youth.

She is an unabashed fan of Murder, She Wrote, Columbo, and The Nancy Drew Hardy Boys Mysteries as well as all things opera and musical theater. She and her family are passionate advocates for both animal rights and foster youth.

You can find her @CandiceKelsey1 @BooksBoxers and @HardyTonight as well as www.christianenglishteacheratorthodoxjewishgirlsschool.com

Candice is also a a Poetry Judge for a cool organization called Ageless Authors that encourages writers over 65 to submit and publish. Read more about their contests here.