About
Kristin Bair O’Keeffe
Kristin’s Favorite Things
Books
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Sula, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, Writing Down the Bones
Writers
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Thich Nhat Han, David Sedaris, Rick Bass, Virginia Woolf, Mary Oliver, Haruki Murakami, Natalie Goldberg
Quote
If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer,
I am here to live
out loud.
Emile Zola
Music
Meat Loaf, Tom Waits, Barenaked Ladies, Hank Williams, Black Eyed Peas, Christy Moore, Green Day, Lucinda Williams
Food
Currently, these tiny, gorgeously juicy oranges that are grown and sold here in China. (I’ve eaten about 300 in the past week.)
Travel Destination
China
Her Story
Background
Kristin was born and raised in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not far from the Clairton Steel Works where her grandfather and great uncles worked after emigrating from Croatia.
In 1988, she completed a bachelor’s degree in English and journalism at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and in 1996, she earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago. In 1995 and 1996, she attended the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference.
Writing
Kristin writes both fiction and nonfiction. She has articles about China in upcoming issues of Poets and Writers Magazine and Highlights for Children. Her monthly column, “Shanghai Adventures in Writing,” appears in the popular e-zine Writers on the Rise.
Kristin has published stories and essays in The Gettysburg Review, The Larcom Review, Permafrost, Hair Trigger, and other literary magazines. You can also read her work in The ELL Outlook and PortFolio Magazine.
Teaching
Throughout her 14-year teaching career, Kristin has taught diverse populations, including many well-prepared college students and some not-so-well-prepared college students, at-risk students at all grade levels, writing majors, art majors, retired opera singers, carpenters, mothers, lawyers, gang members, and many more.
She has taught advanced fiction and creative nonfiction workshops, freshmen writing seminars, and journaling workshops at Boston College, University of New Hampshire, Endicott College, Montserrat College of Art, and Columbia College Chicago. In addition, she designed and taught an online creative writing workshop for the Union Institute and University in Vermont.
Teaching Philosophy
Kristin doesn’t teach people how to write; she teaches people how to open to their own stories and ultimately, to their own stunning soulful voices. The creative process follows.
Today
Kristin lives in Shanghai, China with her husband Andrew and her favorite plant Henry. She is writing like a madwoman, grateful to have the head space and time to write.
