photo by Ashley Gellman
Kelsey McKinney is a reporter and writer who lives in Philadelphia. She is a co-owner and features writer at Defector.com. Her first novel, God Spare The Girls, was published in the summer of 2021. She is the host and writer of the podcast Normal Gossip, and her first non-fiction book You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip is out in 2025.
In her freelance work, Kelsey writes about everything from Tom DeLonge’s alien obsession to Christian megachurches and bull riding. She is only taking very stupid and fun assignments.
Kelsey reporting a story on bullriding in North Carolina. Photo by Jack Sorokin.