Kelly Wilbanks
Transforming obstacles into opportunities…
one word at a time
Welcome to My Creative Space
I’m Kelly Wilbanks, a writer dedicated to telling the truth through stories, poetry, and prose that explore resilience, healing, and hopE.
Whether you’re seeking writing mentorship, creative collaborations, or engaging content, I’m here to help. Let’s work together to create something meaningful.
“Strength isn’t found in having all the answers; it’s in choosing to stand, even when the questions feel heavier than the ground beneath you.”
Published Writing
Poetry Excerpt
Hope Rising: Redemption’s Whisper
Nothing was wrong with the Canary
Singing her song of warning,
A calling to live better than we are
Unresponsive,
her lilting song quieted
Sculptures of stone,
unwilling
A Spiritual Crisis
by nature revealing
the healing, unaware
and unknowingly needed
by His Church.
A sifting,
A gifting scorned.
Families torn.
Leaders, friends,
identities left behind
But, it is we who feel the loss
A hollow in my soul,
this lonesome place
Unseen, dismissed, as one “lost”
A “backslider” in need of prayer
A tug-o-war with those you once
believed you were aligned.
You can’t make them see,
This step you can’t undo,
And anger takes a toll on you…
Read more in
I am a featured poet in Tiny Homes & Tummy Tucks with my poem: Hope Rising: Redemption’s Whisper
“There was nothing wrong with the canary, singing her song of warning…”
—find it in Tiny Homes & Tummy Tucks.
This book was written by one of my best friends, Angela Sue Garvey. She details growing up in the evangelical church during the purity culture of the ’90s, being told to be quiet and submit to her abusive husband by an even more abusive pastor.
She knew something wasn’t right. She’d worked in a Christian bookstore. She’d read ALL the books, and she knew it wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Her divorce sent her into a decade-long spiritual crisis and a growing bitterness and cynicism as she questioned her place in the church and with God.
Garvey is beautifully honest about starting over, sharing the spiritual baggage that followed her into a second marriage and motherhood with all its charms while still desperate to find belonging as an army wife in churches that no longer felt like home.
Honest and hilarious, she shares the religious act of her tummy tuck and downsizing her home to 375 square feet while processing the loneliness of a faith shift.
Tiny Homes & Tummy Tucks is for those who are questioning everything they were taught about God and for those who innately feel like the red-headed stepchild of Christianity.
It is a timely story related to church hurt, deconstruction, and faith reconstruction.
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