Isabelle Kelly

Isabelle Kelly was born and raised in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Indiana. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from Ball State University and her MFA in Popular Fiction and Publishing from Emerson College. Currently, she is pursuing her doctorate in creative writing. Kelly has led community writing workshops, organized creative writing events, and volunteered as a fiction editor for various magazines. She is the recipient of the 2025 Joan Johnson Writing Award in Fiction, the 2025 USM Emerging Artist Award, and the 2026 Garth A. Avant Memorial Endowment. Her debut novel, Princess and the Pauper, was published through Wild Ink Publishing on May 13, 2025. Her interests include young adult literature; writing about mental health, queerness, and familial relationships; and the representation of women in literature both new and old. When not writing, she can be found watching musicals, spending time with her friends, travelling, and thinking of her next book idea.