About the Author

A smiling woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, wearing a black top and a gray cardigan, standing outdoors with blurred dark green trees in the background.

Kristin Bartley Lenz is a writer and licensed clinical social worker who has lived in Michigan, Georgia, and California. Her rock climbing adventures inspired her debut young adult novel, The Art of Holding On and Letting Go, which was a Junior Library Guild Selection and a Great Lakes Great Books Award honor title. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, an array of literary journals, and two anthologies (Rhyme & Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes and Just YA: Short Poems, Essays, & Fiction for Grades 7-12). She also writes freelance for Detroit area nonprofits, teaches creative writing for teens and adults, and escapes to the woods and lakes in northern Michigan whenever she can. Look for her new novel, The Door Swings Open in 2026.

Member of SCBWI logo with a purple circle and a stylized drawing of a chameleon, indicating ten years of membership.

Where She Started and Where She’s Going

I chickened out of majoring in English at the University of Michigan. I loved to read and dreamed of being a writer, but I was afraid. Afraid I wasn't good enough. Afraid that no one would be interested in what I had to say. Afraid I had nothing to say. Afraid I wouldn't be able to support myself on a writer's salary. I chose one of my other interests, psychology, and then went on to get a master's degree in social work from Wayne State University in Detroit. 

Not that I had any allusions about making a great salary as a social worker, but I had stability, variety, flexibility, and the opportunity to help people - a way to contribute to making our world a better place. Social work was a detour on my writing path, but it greatly expanded my worldview. Honestly, it blew the doors off my safe, sheltered childhood and plunged me into real-life stories of hope and despair, triumph and heartache, pain and resilience.

I worked at a runaway shelter and counseling center in Michigan, a mental health clinic and schools in Georgia, a program for children with developmental disabilities in California, and a children's hospital/home-visiting program back in Detroit.

I loved connecting with people and learning their stories. But I soon realized I was nearly the only social worker in existence who liked paperwork. I looked forward to the end of my work days when I could hunker down in my office and write. Essentially, I was writing stories in the form of assessment reports and progress notes. And I began to remember my dream of being a writer. Finally, I had something to say.

So here I am at the intersection of social work and writing. Please take a look around, read my writing, learn about my workshops, and send me a message - I'd love to hear from you.