Writer. Mother. Lover of alliteration. Meditator. Tree Dreamer. Teacher.
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Kristin Kaye is an award-winning author, ghostwriter, writing coach and founder of Story Alchemy, an online writing lab that offers classes and community.
Tree Dreams: A Novel
“Kristin Kaye’s coming of age novel artfully places her young heroine in the midst of the burning questions facing the entire world, such as climate change and culture wars. At the same time, she manages to weave her into a discovery of the ancient human connections to both trees and dreams. This is a work of wit and imagination that informs as it inspires; it also marks a trail of encouragement for the mutual lives of people and trees.” —Michael Meade, author of The Genius Myth and Why the World Doesn’t End. Learn more…
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WINNER 2018 - International Book Awards in Fiction
FINALIST 2019 - NextGen Indie Book Awards: Regional Fiction
Every Day is Earth Day: 365 Books to Create Your Climate Change Library — LitHub
One of 5 Books to Read to Prep for Earth Day – BuzzFeed
One of 10 Books to Keep You Woke in 2018 – Bookstr
“In brilliantly onomatopoeic prose, Kaye shows how Jade comes to several epiphanies about her tree dreams while also coming to know the people that her family considers enemies. Throughout, the author relates the protagonist’s tale of redemption in delightfully sparse language, like a long poem in which small details matter, every word counts, and images are so cogent that they anchor readers in the fictive reality like tree roots . . . A superbly written tale filled with realistic, engaging, and quirky characters.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Kristin Kaye’s coming of age novel artfully places her young heroine in the midst of the burning questions facing the entire world, such as climate change and culture wars. At the same time, she manages to weave her into a discovery of the ancient human connections to both trees and dreams. This is a work of wit and imagination that informs as it inspires; it also marks a trail of encouragement for the mutual lives of people and trees.” — Michael Meade, author of The Genius Myth and Why the World Doesn’t End
Tree Dreams is a touching coming-of-age novel about a budding environmentalist, the seventeen-year-old Jade Reynolds. After witnessing a violent incident involving a logger and a tree hugger, the protagonist joins a band of radical environmentalists who live in the forests of Oregon. This is a great read for adults and teenagers alike. — Amy Brady for LitHub‘s list Every Day is Earth Day
Kaye’s first novel captures the way a teenager sees the world while also giving Jade a unique voice….Jade’s tree dreams weave her reverence for nature with the fraught and tenuous webs that connect all of us to it. Through her, readers feel the sway of the big trees, how they move “with so many other things, like another language.” — Booklist
“As much as Tree Dreams pulses with the ancient call to find our way home, Kristin Kaye’s story of loss and redemption is also fresh, edgy and thrilling. Her prose inhales and exhales and speaks to the best in us, reminding us that sometimes we must face an ache rooted deeply inside. We must risk everything, including our identity and comforts, to find the truth we are searching for.” — Maura Conlon-McIvor, author of FBI Girl: How I Learned to Crack My Father’s Code
“The big question was: how do I write an internal conversation with a tree that sounds like a two-way conversation? How do you give language to a mostly mystical experience?” - GrottoPod Episode 86: Kristin Kaye On Writing Mystical Experiences
Iron Maidens: The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World
“Not long out of college and trying to figure out what to do with her life, Kristin Kaye found herself writing and directing a Broadway show about female bodybuilders. In telling the tale of this show and the women who were in its cast, she persuades us of their humanity while at the same time showing the less appealing aspects of women’s bodybuilding. Kaye tells her own story honestly and amusingly, but always keeps the bodybuilders at the center of the stage.” ~ Oregon Book Awards Judge Jonathan Yardley. Learn more…
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FINALIST - 2006 Oregon Book Awards
One of five new titles for women who resist easy definition. - Utne Reader
“The history of women’s weight training rounds out this sassy, poignant memoir “ - Utne Reader
“Not long out of college and trying to figure out what to do with her life, Kristin Kaye found herself writing and directing a Broadway show about female bodybuilders. In telling the tale of this show and the women who were in its cast, she persuades us of their humanity while at the same time showing the less appealing aspects of women’s bodybuilding. Kaye tells her own story honestly and amusingly, but always keeps the bodybuilders at the center of the stage.” - Oregon Book Awards Judge Jonathan Yardley
“HUNKETTES: No discussions of female victimhood the other night at Roseland. Just two dozen women bodybuilders, very pumped up.” - Arnold Roth, The Talk of the Town column for The New Yorker
“Kaye weaves the story…in an earnest, idealistic and endearing way….” - Jeff Baker, The Oregonian
“First-rate author Kristin Kaye deserves admiration for her immense, unflinching bravery in writing Iron Maidens: The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World. With deft writing skill and gripping momentum, she bared her evolving personal and professional raw self, exposing every hope, every delusion, misjudgment, rationalization and grief in the rarified experience of her first big break – writing and directing a Broadway show. The pain of her tough and bizarre journey is exquisite, and yet she unfolds the tale in such an engaging way that she allows you to laugh at it all, even eggs you on with her wounds gaping open…On top of this steady, jading, black humorist perspective is an equally naked stare into the wild world of professional female bodybuilding…” - Iron Maidens Makes Weight by Kat Ricker
“Kaye weaves together the story of her bittersweet directorial debut/meltdown with a darkly humorous look into the world of female bodybuilding [and has] also ended up creating the most up-to-date journalistic history of the sport available.” - The Willamette Week
Kristin Kaye was a wide-eyed 23 year-old fresh out of drama school in 1993 when she responded to a classified ad that read: “administrative assistant wanted for exciting women’s project.” What she didn’t know at the time was that the project was a Broadway show entitled “The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World,” the brainchild of bodybuilder and writer Laurie Fierstein. Kaye ended up getting hired as the show’s director and had just six weeks to put it together. Iron Maidens is her funny, readable account of what followed: a regular girl’s journey into the world of women’s bodybuilding…Kaye has moved beyond her initial shock and bafflement at female bodybuilders, through fascination, to genuine admiration for them. Hopefully, a lot of readers will do too…” - GeneX Magazine
