Kelly Clayton is a writer, poet, playwright, and workshop facilitator. She is a Louisiana Creole with roots 15 generations deep. She returned home after twenty years in New York City spent teaching herself to write. Though she dropped out of high school for creative reasons (four sons), she kept both pantry and bookshelves full by working as a waitress, line cook, publisher's assistant, exotic dancer, and event producer. She is a VONA/Voices, as well as a Hedgebrook Alumnae. She was a recipient of the Hedgebrook Women Authoring Change Award.

Kelly’s poetry has been published by, among others: Future Cycle Press, Delacorte Press, China Grove Press, The Dead Mule Society of Southern Literature, and Random House.

She was awarded an Artist's Residency with the Acadiana Center for the Arts for the production of her original play, "Dancing With Aurora Borealis.”

Kelly develops and teaches bespoke writing workshops in Louisiana schools, both public and private, for the Lafayette Juvenile Detention Center, and to groups of formerly incarcerated adults. She currently lives in Lafayette with her husband, youngest of four sons and their Great Pyrenees, Mabelline.