Cherie Kephart
Manuscript Consultant
Raised in Venice, California, Cherie longed to travel and experience the way other people lived. After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia on a water sanitation and health education project, Cherie returned to the United States with an African souvenir she didn’t expect: a mysterious illness. She fell severely ill and almost died, leaving her with several symptoms that went undiagnosed for many years. This inspired Cherie to write her memoir, A Few Minor Adjustments: A Memoir of Healing, taking the reader on a powerful but entertaining journey through her adventures and search for life-saving answers.
Her memoir has won several awards and received an outpouring of heartfelt responses, motivating Cherie to write a companion book, The Healing 100: A Practical Guide to Transforming Your Body, Mind, and Spirit. Her third book, Poetry of Peace, is a poignant collection of poems that celebrate the decadence and darkness of life.
A graduate of the University of Auckland, New Zealand with an MA in Medical and Cultural Anthropology with First Class Honors, Cherie also holds a BA in Communications from UCSD, and a Certification in Scientific and Technical Writing. Besides technical writing, she has notable experience as both a ghostwriter and editor. Her essays, stories, and poems have appeared in publications and events such as the San Diego Writers Ink Anthology, the SDMWA Memoir Showcase Anthology, the San Diego Poetry Annual, the Magee Park Poets Anthology, the Oceanside Literary Art Walk, the Wild Lemon Project, and the Transform Your Life classes.
After traveling to more than forty countries, Cherie now lives in San Diego and is passionate about a holistic approach to healing and examining her life lessons in her writing.
Connect with her at CherieKephart.com
Awards
2019 Soul & Spirit Spiritual Book Awards Winner for the Best Real-Life Spiritual Story
2019 Soul & Spirit Spiritual Book Awards Highly Commended for the Best Healing Book
2018 Independent Publishers Book Award Silver Medal Winner for Best Autobiography / Memoir (Personal Struggle Health Issues)
2018 Connected Women of Influence Finalist for an Author of Influence Award
2017 San Diego Book Award Winner for Best Unpublished Memoir
2017 Bookvana Award Winner for Best Autobiography: Female Inspirational/Motivational book
2017 William Faulkner – Wisdom Competition – Semi-Finalist
2017 Southern California Book Festival – Honorable Mention
Winning Spots in the 2015 & 2017 San Diego Annual Memoir Showcases
Heed the Creative Writing Advice of Kurt Vonnegut
“Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.”
Message to My Fellow Writers
Writing is all about transformation. We know our characters are meant to change by the end of the story, and, if we’ve done our job well, our readers will change along the way. Most importantly, you as a writer will change too. By the time you are ready to publish, you will have learned so much that you would write your book differently—better. If you don’t think that at the end of the project, you weren’t paying attention.
