Kelsey Cleveland spent eight years living, working, and becoming a mother in Japan. After studying Japanese at Smith College and Nanzan University, she worked for the city government of Osaka and at an international school in Kobe. Her essays have received honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest 86th Annual Writing Competition. She has studied memoir/narrative nonfiction at Hedgebrook and Catapult. She lives with her husband and teenage son near Portland, Oregon, where she belongs to Willamette Writers and her passport is safely stowed for now.

Kelsey is currently working on The Fan Unfolds: On Finding Myself and Home in Japan, a book-length travel memoir.