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Midwest Writers’ Workshop Video

I’m honored to be a committee member of the Midwest Writers’ Workshop. The annual conference celebrated its 40th year last month. That’s 40 years of volunteers working to put on a conference for one reason: they love to help writers.

The workshop, located in my hometown of Muncie, is where I met Caren (Johnson) Estesen who sold WEARING to Wiley. It’s where it all began for me, so I love the chance to give back to it and the awesome group of writers who attend each year. Many of them are like family now.

When folks ask me about how to get into writing, my second tip after the obvious and often forgotten first tip (WRITE!) is to attend a conference.

Matt Shouse put together…

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“Social Good” campaigns aren’t always good

This week I appeared on HuffPo Live alongside Dr. Mara Einstein, author of Compassion Inc, and Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive who spoke out against the industry’s deception of the American public and author of Deadly Spin.

I talked about Starbucks C.A.F.E. Practices program that I witnessed (or in many cases did not witness) in Colombia while researching EATING. And I also talked about TOMS. My main point was that we are just served up a pill of “do gooding” and we swallow it whole without asking questions about who or how much such ideas benefit the people they are meant to serve.

Dr. Einstein shared a mind blowing example. McDonald’s had a campaign playing up the fact that a portion of all…

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My Cover Story in the CS Monitor

The line between exploitation and opportunity in our global economy is blurry.

This blurred line is at the heart of my recent cover story in the CS Monitor. I feel that the feature is one of my most important works to date, bridging my travels and research from my first book WEARING and my latest book EATING.

I felt compelled to write the main story as I followed the tragedy of the recent collapsed factory in Bangladesh that killed 1,129 garment workers.

Here’s how Monitor Editor, John Yemma, introduced the feature:

“Kelsey’s reporting is not designed to steer you away from these items but to help you appreciate the human lives behind them.”

Read the main story, “Follow the…

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