I am super excited to welcome longtime Iowan and all-around delightful human Tracey Kelley to #read99women today!

The official bio: Tracey L. Kelley shares stories, teaches yoga, and helps people listen. Her award-winning writing appears in a variety of forms, including essay, short story, online, magazine, broadcast, and podcast. She's the author of the 2019 release, one moment of a single day: essays with photographer Lynne A. Kasey; a developmental editor for other people's projects; and a facilitator of interpersonal communication workshops.

(one moment of a single day is a wonderful book for these times, by the way, full of images and words that pull your focus inward and expand your mind outward at the same time. More about it here.)

Tracey L. Kelley

Tracey’s recommendation for #read99women is Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays by Eula Biss.

Why this book? "It's her gentle, unwavering voice that greets you with the sharpest of imagery. It's her worldly perspective, pointing to the national atrocities of race, societal misconceptions, and continual struggle for understanding not with judgment, but with purpose. Ten years on, this book is as relevant as when it debuted. Layers of history, intriguing facts, and succulent phrasing remind us why, in the sea of all the words we can read, we must make time to take hold of culturally-significant non-fiction such as this, because we're all the better for it. Biss is an accomplished author and educator, and founding editor of Essay Press. Instead of yelling into the void, she uses these skills to help us all aspire to a new level of conscious awareness in the society we have the power to create."