Welcome to Minding the Gaps
Stories of mental health, social justice, true crime, and so much more.
My name is Kali White VanBaale, and I’ve been a writer for over twenty years.
A little bit about me:
I write novels, short stories, personal essays, true crime and mental health articles. My work has been published by the A&E Network, Crime Reads, The Coachella Review, The Chaffey Review, Midwestern Gothic, Nowhere Magazine, The Des Moines Register, Poets&Writers, and The Writers’ Chronicle among others. I’m also the managing editor-at-large for the flash essay journal Past Ten.
I hold an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and I’m a core faculty member of the Lindenwood University MFA in writing program where I was named Adjunct Professor of the Year in 2022.
I grew up on a dairy farm in southern Iowa and have lived in central Iowa with my husband and (now grown) children for nearly thirty years.
What is “Minding the Gaps”?
In 2017, after a shocking mental health tragedy in my neighborhood, I quickly learned about the serious mental healthcare and related social justice issues in my state and started writing about them.
There’s a saying: Mind the gap.
Before trains arrive subway stations, an automated voice often comes over the speakers and repeatedly says, “Mind the gap,” instructing riders to stay clear of and watch out for the space between the platform and the train, lest they stumble and fall.
This phrase, “mind the gap,” has been on my mind a lot the last several years in relation to mental healthcare and social justice issues, but really in relation to life in general. I’m always interested exploring these “gaps” in our daily lives and communities where if we’re not paying attention, we and others could stumble and fall.
So here, I’m telling the stories of those gaps I see in life, in our mental healthcare system, in our communities, in our families, and within ourselves.
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Help Support Minding the Gaps
Because I’m often writing about the pain and struggles of others and sharing their stories for us all to learn from, my columns are available to all subscribers for free.
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Thanks for visiting,
Kali
