About Lee Ann

Reinventing myself is my superpower.

I entered journalism school at the University of Texas at Austin the same month that Nixon resigned. So my desire to be a writer was channeled into newspapers, where I thrived on deadline as a reporter and  editor. I met thousands of them, and my dream was a Pulitzer Prize.

After thirteen years as a journalist, I was hired to run the statewide campaign of Ruth Ann Minner, a state senator who became lieutenant governor and, in 2000, Delaware’s first female governor. She was a high school dropout who earned her GED as a widow raising three sons, and I wrote hundreds of speeches and developed her policy platform – including a landmark land-use initiative called Livable Delaware.

Toward the end of her administration, I became a nationally certified land-use planner and was appointed Chief of Planning in the state’s natural resources department. When I retired in 2013, I started two businesses: Kairos Communications, which built websites for churches and nonprofits, and Cedar Creek Planning and Communications. I was hired by the University of Delaware and various towns to help communities plan thoughtfully for growth.

But my one regret was leaving the writing life far behind. Until I applied to Drexel University’s MFA program in 2022, the Town of Laurel (Del.) Comprehensive Plan was my lengthiest writing effort. I was determined to complete a manuscript during the program. After finishing a draft of “The Salt and Life Express” in April 2023, I worked with my MFA packet-exchange mentor, Aimie K. Runyan, for a year on the manuscript from overarching themes and structure down to line edits.

Graduating with an MFA in Creative Writing from Drexel in June 2024, I was an editor of its literary journal. “MFA and Beyond,” a Substack chronicling my writing life during and after grad school, posts regularly. I have a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas and an MBA from the University of Delaware. Certified in web and graphic design, I am skilled at digital media and have built more than thirty websites for churches and nonprofits.

In the spiritual vein, the path taken in the novel by Chris, the protagonist, is very similar to my own. After being christened in the Methodist church, I answered a revival altar call in fifth grade and became a Southern Baptist. Disillusionment led me to wander in the wilderness for thirty years after college – until I found myself in the back pew of an Episcopal church in Dover, Delaware, for the governor’s inaugural services. The rector, still a close friend, pushed all the right buttons during her homily. I became a voracious consumer of scripture, theology and practice;  I experienced five eight-day silent Ignatian retreats and one Benedictine retreat.

The pandemic led me to rethink worship and ministry. I now play keyboards in a praise band every Sunday at one of the most progressive United Methodist churches in Delaware, in Rehoboth Beach. We have taken in many refugees from churches that disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church over LGBTQ issues.

I have now started writing my second novel, “The Grease Pencil Gang.”

• Lee Ann Walling