Shelly Chatterelli is an award-winning writer and poet living in Ann Arbor, Mi. As a 2nd generation Appalachian, Shelly draws her writing inspiration from her family’s deep S. Eastern Kentucky roots, a culture rich in the value of family, food and togetherness. Shelly grew up in a small southwestern Ohio town with her three brothers and three sisters.  It was childhood, not filled with financial wealth, but abundant with experiences like the plucking and eating of tomatoes right off the vine, being called in for dinner by the smell of fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits riding on a summer breeze and weekend nights catching fireflies barefoot under the stars while aunts and uncles gathered inside for the songs of her father and her mother’s warm peach cobbler.

Shelly Chatterelli has been a featured commentator of true to life stories for WKSU-NPR and has taught many writing and inspirational workshops. She served as the Assistant Regional Advisor of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators for Northern Ohio for five years and was a successful columnist for the Massillon Independent Newspaper. Chatterelli received the Robin Harding Scholarship Award for new novelists and her radio commentaries have been awarded for excellence in journalism. Shelly is also a passionate teacher of yoga and mindfulness. She is now working on her 2nd novel for young readers and still uses the memory of her mother's warm biscuits spread with blackberry jam as her muse.

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