books by keri

I’ve always loved to write. It started with silly poems and bad rhyming at age ten, and continued through graduate school and a job writing benefits manuals.

In 2003, I left my job to raise kids and reboot a wannabe athletic career. I started running. The running led to marathons, which led to triathlon, which led to the triathlon of all triathlons—Ironman—which led to becoming an award-winning, nationally-ranked triathlete, which led to a triathlon blog, which led to me really missing writing but desperately wanting to do something more creative with it. 

Serendipitously, a good friend who read my triathlon blog (and worked for a fledgling apparel company) called to ask: would I like to be a dog instead? I mean, who wouldn't, am I right?

So, I stopped racing, joined Teddy the Dog Apparel and became the voice of a sarcastic, sunglasses-wearing divine canine and writing dog humor (cats don’t know sit, after all). After significant growth in Teddy’s following (14k to well over 100K in three years), HarperCollins offered me a picture book contract. After five amazing years with Teddy, I left to pursue writing full time. My latest book, The Black Hole Debacle, launched August 2022 and has already received rave reviews from SLJ and Kirkus. My 2020 book, Otis P. Oliver Protests was nominated for the 2022 Grand Canyon Reader Award. I'm also working on my first adult book: There's No Crying in Baseball is a family memoir about my father's career in the MLB and growing up a 'baseball brat.'

I’m a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Writers’ Loft, and 12 x 12 Picture Book Forum. I also hold a master’s degree in communications from Northwestern University. I'm represented by Trident Media Group Literary Agency.