E. E. Kelley was born September 19, 1979. She grew up on the west side of Detroit, Michigan in a middle class neighborhood.

Kelley has always been a lover of literature: “I won my first poetry contest when I was in second grade.” As a girl, she wrote poetry, songs, plays and stories. As with most writers, Kelley was an avid reader with a voracious appetite for books. “I used to love the Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown and Sweet Valley High series.” But her all-time favorite book as a girl was Judy Blume’s “Are You There God, it’s me, Margaret”? Today, Kelley still reads and writes books which depict strong, inspiring female characters.

After graduating high school in 1997, Kelley attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She would eventually receive a BA in English; but not before much struggle and angst in deciding what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. “Back then, I really didn’t think of writing as a serious profession. I thought I was limited to ‘normal’ jobs like Lawyer or Doctor or Businesswoman. Therefore, I spent my freshman and sophomore years in college changing my major from business to political science to communications to general studies.” It wasn’t until the second semester of her junior year that Kelley confided in her counselor about the trouble she was having in choosing a major. “I told her I had always been good at writing; and she encouraged me to major in English.” After taking an aptitude test, Kelley was placed in advanced creative writing classes where she earned high marks and the confidence to call herself a writer.

But with the terror attacks of 2001 causing the world economy to become unstable, Kelley was unable to find a job after graduation. Because she also had interests in modeling and acting; she enrolled in the John Casablanca Modeling & Career Center in November 2001. Kelley has been featured on MTV in music videos, on television in commercials, on the silver screen in movies, on the runway in fashion shows and on the radio in voiceovers. “I liked modeling and I loved acting; but I was put on this planet to write.” In January 2003, she accepted a position as a substitute teacher, but left the Winans Academy of Performing Arts in 2004 to pursue a career in corporate sales. “I knew that if I wanted to be a best-selling author, I’d need to learn how to sell.” After selling cars for Toyota and office supplies for Staples, Kelley was armed with the selling and marketing skills she needed to become a best-selling success.

While teaching and selling brought Kelley a vague sense of accomplishment, she still held fast to her dreams of writing. “I would write everyday. And I supplemented my income at that time by freelancing as a copyeditor.” Since the rebirth of her ambitions as a writer, Kelley has authored more than nine books including “How to be an Irresistible Woman”, “The Marvelous Person”, “LOLA” and “More Jewelry than Clothes.” Kelley believes it is not only her destiny, but her responsibility to empower and entertain women by way of her writing.

Given Kelley writes about women with strong personalities similar to her own, she knows readers assume her books are about herself. “I’m not interested in writing about myself. I get inspiration for my characters from my dreams and from my imagination.”