Kristen McKendry began writing in her teens and her work has been published in Canada and the U.S. She has written 11 books and more are on the way. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Linguistics from Brigham Young University and has always been a voracious reader, usually reading 3-4 books a week.
Kristen won the 2012 Mississauga Arts Council MARTY Award for Established Literary Arts, and her book Garden Plot was nominated for the 2011 Whitney Award for excellence in LDS fiction.
Kristen has a strong interest in urban agriculture, sustainable living, environmental issues, and the local foods movement. She incorporates these themes in her writing, and she also lets her background as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) flavour her work to make her culture more accessible to mainstream readers. She is a former bagpipe and banjo player, enjoys learning obscure languages and growing wheat in the backyard, and she's learning to weave.
Raised in Utah, she now resides with her family in Canada. She's also the proud grandmother of the world's cutest kids, and if she had life to do over again, she'd like to be an architect.