Kelly lives and writes in Houston, TX. She holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Houston, where she now teaches Technical Communications. A member of Poets in the Loop critique group, she is the co-founder of hotpoet, a literary nonprofit, and the managing editor of its online journal, Equinox. Her work has been included in several juried poetry festivals and has appeared in various journals and anthologies. Her collaborative cinepoems were featured in the REELpoetry Festival for three consecutive years, and her poetry was showcased in the Houston Fringe Festival in 2019 in the music and dance production, It’s About Love. Her fiction placed 2nd in The Short Story Show's 2020 contest and was re-released in a “best-of” podcast in 2021. Ellis was twice nominated in 2020 for a Pushcart prize, and in 2023 Lamar University Literary Press published her poetry collection, The Hungry Ghost Diner.