My path
Chelsea Donoho
I have won my daily bread for more than 30 years working with words—
at a magazine, at a nonprofit, in university communications. I have called this work “writing about what other people are doing.” It is an easy place to hide.
And then there are the scribbled pages of my own encounters, dreams and experiments: prose pieces and poems at the periphery that I couldn’t ignore.
So I have made this website as a container for short written pieces that might serve as beginnings, opportunities to follow.
It might be helpful to share some background in straightforward language.
I live in the hills north of Lawrence, Kansas, with my husband and cat. I am here because my family lives nearby and my community is strong, but I am deeply drawn to points west. I write, read and walk daily, keep gardens, travel often.
When I was very young, I taught high school English in California for one year. It was exhausting, but I had a great group of friends, and we adventured every weekend. Afterward I studied journalism as a practical decision, and that master’s degree has fed me and given me time and space to explore inner and outer worlds. It sent me traveling all over the U.S. and on several international trips as a magazine editor in my twenties. It gave me the stability to study and teach in Europe for two years. It supported me through the MFA program, through the rehabilitation of several old houses, through misadventures as a flower farmer. Mostly it has given me what I really need: “free mind time.”
My academic study focused on poetry, the personal essay, and environmental and Native American literature. My writing has been published in a few literary journals as well as a collection on the work of the poet William Stafford, edited by Denise Low, my friend and most encouraging teacher.
One thing more: I have been a runner since age 13; I depend on it for mental clarity and have ordered my working life around it.