About Sally

Background

Ketchum says, "My childhood in Detroit was both happy and special.  I am a self-confessed tomboy,  I was also a radio Quiz Kid, and (terrible) student of piano and ballet.  However, I started to write and publish in children's magazines at age six.  A winning poem was about brown shoes."


"I credit my father, a talented writer, commercial artist and ad man, for inspiration.  He considered writing a natural activity.  I am married to an educated man of wide interests, Irish literature, music, vocal music, and environmental protection.  He also builds wooden boats.  He serves as the model for the character, He-Who-Must-Be-Fed, in my food column.  We have three adult children, a pony-sized yellow lab, Tucker, who takes care of Wolf, an ancient, blind, black lab."

 

           

Qualifications   

Ketchum says, "I have a passion for learning that is broad and deep, and I attempt to live deliberately. The University of Michigan and other respected schools have given me a fine education. I am a good researcher and have taught research.  Audiences think I am funny and sometimes eccentric, but I am considered a good presenter.  My experience is rich, and my work reads with authority, but the authoritative voice is lightened by humor. I work well with editors and value their comments. Editors and readers, alike, have called my work warm, intimate, and authentic."  

“Ketchum writes with a grace and elegance that has won her hundreds of diehard fans," writes Anne Stanton, editor and environmentalist

Education

  • The University of Michigan, B.A. English-Journalism-Social Sciences
  • Graduate work: Concentration in Gifted Education
  • Wayne State University (English, philosophy)
  • Michigan State University  (gifted education)
  • Central Michigan University  (gifted education)
  • Albion College (literary Criticism)

Awards - Prizes - Profiles

  • National Dow Jones Newspaper Group Award (Three time nominee)
  • Northwestern Michigan College Teacher of the Year (nominee)
  • Grand Traverse Quota Club, Woman of the Year, 1995
  • 1st prize in many professional writing competitions
  • National prize for most useful article, The Lutheran  (largest denomination monthly in US)
  • Poetry Prize, San Francisco Writers Conference 2006
  • Children's Fiction Prize, San Francisco Writers Conference 2007
  • Grand Prize Poetry, San Francisco Writers Conference 2008
  • First prizes in poetry and fiction, Artsphere, Traverse City
  • Multiple first places, Upper Peninsula Writers competitions
  • Profiled: in The Quill (national Quarterly), Michigan Today (University of Michigan publication), The Lutheran, Traverse City Record-Eagle, Escanaba Press, and other Michigan periodicals and newspapers.