Kristin Bartley Lenz

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 and was reissued as a 10th Anniversary edition in 2026. Another YA novel, The Door Swings Open, publishes in 2027. 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 non-profits, teaches creative writing for teens and adults, and escapes to the woods and lakes in northern Michigan whenever she can.