About Ky

I’ve been a gas station attendant, camp counselor, speech writer, corporate attorney, sea kayak guide in Monterey Bay, ski instructor in Lake Tahoe, and lawyer at a non-profit serving the poor in Southern Appalachia. Before becoming a mom, my motto was work hard, play harder. I spent years adventuring including living on the Chesapeake Bay in a sailboat, racing yachts on Lake Michigan, a self-supported month of sea kayaking in Baja, and whitewater kayaking in Patagonia, Nepal, New Zealand and the Alps.

Influenced by the hustle culture, I conflated my accomplishments with my identity. Motherhood changed that. Humbled by love for my son and utterly confounded by how to raise a boy, I stopped doing and focused on being. I spent time with my son outside. Taking him on adventures slowed my pace, giving me space to attach words to our experiences. Soon I was writing a column about raising kids outdoors, travel essays, and a book.

Motherhood also intensified the urgency for me to do something about the environment. I watched my son’s bond with the outdoors deepen at the same time as climate change and plastic pollution worsened. In 2016, I contributed to National Geographic sponsored ASC Microplastic Research while sailing in the Caribbean. In March 2020, I will join an all-women sailing expedition to study ocean pollution while sailing from Easter Island to Tahiti.

Mother. Writer. Environmentalist. Each grows the others, they go together, and I bring my whole self to all three.

Brief Writing Bio

Ky Delaney’s writing has appeared in the anthology The Best Travel Writing, Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine, and Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. She’s currently writing her first book, AFLOAT, a memoir about taking her four-year-old son sailing in the Caribbean with an all-female crew. Ky received a Solas award for travel writing and received a fellowship to attend Vermont Studio Center and a Writing by Writers residency.

Listen to Ky Here