Keri Wyatt Kent

During her “awkward stage,” which, like Picasso’s “blue period,” lasted several years (age 9 to about 15 or so), Keri would frequently take an old Army blanket and a book, climb a tree and read, perched in the branches, for hours. She also wrote furtively, in the mode of Harriet the Spy, her hero at the time.

Despite those temporary anti-social leanings, Keri eventually came out of her shell, although she never really gave up reading or writing. After discovering newspaper work in college, she became a reporter, eventually writing for The Daily Herald, Illinois’ third largest newspaper.

She met Scot at Willow Creek Community Church in 1989, and they got married two years later. They continue to worship and serve at Willow.

She left The Herald to start freelancing when she was pregnant with her daughter Melanie, whom she cannot believe will be thirteen this year! (So far, it’s been a blast but she would appreciate prayers for her parenting efforts for obvious reasons.) Two years later, her son Aaron was born. A year after that (do the math: two preschoolers underfoot) she wrote her first book, God’s Whisper in a Mother’s Chaos. No one was more surprised than Keri herself about this, since up until then, she wrote for publications such as Construction Marketing Today.

She lives in the suburbs of Chicago where her husband Scot works as a realtor. Keri works as a freelance writer, author and speaker. She’s written five books, including her newest, Oxygen: Deep Breathing for the Soul, which is a devotional sequel to her 2005 release, Breathe: Creating Space for God in a Hectic Life.

She enjoys cooking but hates cleaning, so if you come over to her house, she’ll pour you a cup of coffee or a glass of wine (depending on the time of day), fix you something delicious, but you may have to help clear a space to sit down and eat it. She and Scot love to open their home to friends and strangers. They’ve hosted guests from all over the world, and all around their neighborhood, since their kids’ friends hang out a lot—maybe because they know they’ll get fed (and no one seems to mind loud music or the pitter-patter of big pre-adolescent feet).

Keri’s into gardening (even wrote a book about it—The Garden of the Soul) and being outdoors—hiking, biking, sailing, walking the dog. But she’s also a frequent visitor to Chicago’s Art Institute and other great museums, has season tickets to the Joffrey Ballet and loves window shopping on Michigan Avenue (although she does most of her actual shopping at Target).

Favorite writers include Anne Lamott, Lauren Winner, Barbara Kingsolver, Madeleine L’Engle, Donald Miller, Philip Yancey and C.S. Lewis.

Most of all, Keri loves Jesus, because of the amazing grace He just can’t seem to stop pouring on her.

Posting Day: Thursday
Location: Hoffman Estates, IL
Email: KWKent@aol.com
Website: www.keriwyattkent.com

For more of Keri’s Books Visit Amazon

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