Writing Career of Marty Meyer-Gad

Marty Meyer-Gad is the author of “Seventy-Four Cents” and the “Kimsara Detective Agency” series. Based in Mankato, Minnesota, she is a former junior high school teacher, church minister, consultant, chaplain, and ordained Roman Catholic priest.

Marty began her writing career in seventh grade when University of Minnesota professors mentored her 4-H club on writing motivational speeches (she went on to win the county competition). After writing for the high school paper and college literary magazine, Marty became a junior high school teacher and mentored many future writers. Her career path then lead her to church ministry, where she continued to write, edit, and develop educational resources that have since been featured at the National Association of Catholic Chaplains, the Mankato Women & Spirituality Conference, and numerous other groups.

In April 2010, Marty was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest. Why would a Catholic woman, active in church ministry opposed to women's ordination, risk ordination into the Catholic priesthood? This question and more are explored in Marty's 2014 memoir "Seventy-Four Cents."

The “Kimsara Detective Agency” series grew from Marty’s teaching. She found seventh graders to be quite capable of understanding the world and making creative, positive impacts on it. Written for all ages, the books can be used as springboards to approach difficult subjects including grief, suicide, alcoholism, homelessness, identity, and sexual orientation. In each book, a woman priest highlights the future Catholic Church with a more inclusive clergy.