Kelley Calvert is a writer and an Assistant Professor in English for Academic Purposes at the Monterey Institute of International Studies located in Monterey, California. She is a frequent contributor to the Monterey County Weekly and her creative work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.

 

 

 

       She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the education sector in     Benin, West Africa from 2003-2005.  

 

                                          

     She graduated with a Master's Degree in Teaching English to Students of other Languages (TESOL) from the Monterey
 Institute in 2006. 

 

 

    She obtained a Bachelors in Fine Arts at Emerson College in Boston where she majored in Creative Writing.

  When not fighting crime or brokering world peace with a felt-tip pen, Ms. Calvert enjoys reading, hiking, and other generally agreeable activites.

 

She is currently at work on her first book, Hope Walks into a Bar Looking for Change: In Search of the New America, which is the story of a traveler zooming around 48 states in a veggie oil-powered vehicle seeking “the new America”. During this fossil fuel-free trip around the United States, author Kelley Calvert investigates themes including the role of faith in modern society, the loom of Apocalypse scenarios, minority struggles and triumphs in the 21^st century, the decline of consumer culture, and the rise of a new collective vision being formed by Americans across the country. What is this vision and is a new America truly possible in a nation of conflicting identities?