Mini Bio:

Kris Spisak wrote her first three books—Get a Grip on Your Grammar, The Novel Editing Workbook, and The Family Story Workbook—to help writers of all kinds sharpen their storytelling and empower their communications. Her award-winning debut novel, The Baba Yaga Mask, was inspired by her Ukrainian heritage, and her fifth book, Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods, explores the complex origins of this Slavic folktale character and her lingering lessons for empowering us all. Kris knows well-written words and well-told stories can change the world, and she cannot wait to tell you her next story.

Short Bio:

Author Kris Spisak, a graduate of the College of William and Mary (B.A.) and the University of Richmond (M.L.A.), fully believes that well-written words and well-told stories have the ability to change the world. She wrote her first three books—Get a Grip on Your Grammar, The Novel Editing Workbook, and The Family Story Workbook—to help writers of all kinds sharpen their storytelling and empower their communications. Her award-winning debut novel, The Baba Yaga Mask, was inspired by her family’s experience in the post-WWII Ukrainian diaspora and has been called “A complex, poetic tale” by Kirkus Reviews and “edu-tainment at its best” by the Historical Novel Society. Her fifth book, Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods, described as “A delicious read” by Atlas Obscura, is a nonfiction exploration of the complex origins of this Slavic folktale character and her lingering lessons for empowering us all. Kris is an active speaker, workshop leader, and literary historian.

Long Bio:

Kris Spisak knows that well-written words and well-told stories have the ability to change the world. A graduate of the College of William and Mary (B.A.) and the University of Richmond (M.L.A.), Kris wrote her first three books—Get a Grip on Your Grammar: 250 Writing and Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused (Career Press, 2017; HarperCollins India 2020), The Novel Editing Workbook: 105 Tricks and Tips for Revising Your Fiction Manuscript  (Davro Press, 2020), and The Family Story Workbook: 105 Prompts & Pointers for Writing Your History (Davro Press, 2020)—to help writers of all kinds sharpen their storytelling and empower their communications. Her Grammartopia^® events and Story Stop Tour programs follow the same mission.

Her award-winning debut novel, The Baba Yaga Mask (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2022; Tantor Audio, 2023), was inspired by her family’s experience in the post-WWII Ukrainian diaspora and has been called “A complex, poetic tale” by Kirkus Reviews and “edu-tainment at its best” by the Historical Novel Society. Her fifth book, Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods (Red Wheel / Weiser, 2024; Tantor Audio, 2024), acclaimed as a “nuanced work of feminist literary criticism,” explores the complex origins of this Slavic folktale character and her lingering lessons for empowering us all.

Kris has been spotlighted in Writer’s Digest and The Huffington Post for her work as an author dedicated to helping other writers, and she is passionate about transforming book signings and storytelling events into humanitarian aid efforts when the opportunity allows. When not working on her own projects, she is an active speaker, editor, workshop/webinar leader, and literary historian. Kris is a member and former board of directors chair of James River Writers and is also a member of the American Folklore Society, the Virginia Writers Club and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. The place where right brain and left brain meet is her favorite place to work.

When not researching, writing, editing, or at creative play, she can often be found going on hiking trips in the Appalachians, sneaking off to the Gulf coast beaches of Florida, and travelling as much as she can.