Kelsi Folsom is a Texas-born poet and classically trained singer navigating marriage and motherhood with black coffee, her library card, and a whole lot of prayer.
Her poems and essays are published in The Orchards Poetry Journal, Plough, West Texas Literary Review, Verily Magazine, Heart of Flesh Literary Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the author of three collections of poetry, Breaking the Jar (Finishing Line Press, 2022), Buried in the Margins (Finishing Line Press, 2020), and Words the Dirt Meant to Share (Desert Willow Press, 2018).
She is a M.A. student in Theopoetics and Writing at Bethany Theological Seminary. Her work has been featured in numerous anthologies, including Songs of Love and Strength (Mum Poem Press), I Will Set a Place for You (Solid Food Press), and I Tried Not to Write (Snapdragon Journal of Art and Healing).
As an opera and jazz singer, she has performed all over the world, including Scandinavia, Maui, Israel, the Dutch Caribbean, Central America, and Portugal. Most recently, she performed in Verdi’s Requiem with the Carmel Symphony Orchestra and traveled to Cape Town, South Africa as the lead singer with Global Missions Project’s Metro Big Band Jazz Orchestra.
As a minister of Christ Jesus, she strives to utilize the power of creative arts to positively shape culture as a form of hospitality, advocacy, and recovery. She enjoys encouraging others to live embodied lives of purpose, imagination, and delight.
When she isn’t making food for family and friends, she enjoys hiking, getting lost in art museums, studying herbalism, and planning vacations poets can’t afford. She currently makes her home in NW Ohio with her EM physician husband and four fantastic kiddos.
Instagram: @kelsifolsom
Website: www.kelsifolsom.com
Newsletter: The Shameless Beauty Digest
Paperback: 98 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (March 6, 2025)