St. Pete native, Kerry Kriseman, graduated from USF with a degree in broadcasting. She began her extensive career during college as a 20-year-old Copy Clerk at the St. Pete Times running copies of articles to proofreaders in the bustling floors of a top-10 national newspaper. The following summers of her early adulthood in the ’80s and ’90s, Kriseman could be found jumping at the opportunity to interview someone just for practice, or enjoying the little time she had in an editing bay during at USF in the decades of arguably the peak of American journalism. Later, this experience went through metamorphosis into a career in marketing both at the St. Pete Times and beyond.
In 2014, with her husband’s election as the mayor of St. Pete, a friend asked Kriseman if she was going to share her experiences via blogs or stories. “And my friend said, ‘You should write a book’. And I thought, Me? I should write a book? ” That seemingly unimaginable idea went through many growth spurts before it became the novel it is today. The book, Accidental First Lady began as a guide for political spouses trying to navigate the complex world of politics, while still leading a semi-normal life. It later bloomed into a capitalization not on what makes the life of a political spouse different from all other spouses, but on what makes them the same. “And that’s not just in politics, that’s in a lot of things in your life.” She emphasizes these topics from her book, the things that she learned as the wife of a political figure that can apply to any marriage. Good communication, the power in telling your own story, courage, and authenticity.
This was also a pivotal time for the increasing imposition of social media platforms into the lives of both political figures and citizens in general. Kriseman’s private life was shared with and without her consent numerous times throughout her husband’s career. It seemed that nothing, not her own health or her son’s wellbeing or the competitive and complex issues during her husband’s campaign, could be kept private. She practiced the patience it took to type out a paragraph on social media, to work out her emotions, then deleting it, knowing she could never post it.
Kriseman also offers practical advice for aspiring writers. Mostly, she stresses the thing all true writers dread: writing. “Set writing goals, even if it’s just 15 minutes a day. And, y’know, revise it or trash it, y’know, and then go back.” She uses these small goals as an agent to fight against procrastination, though she does believe that, “Procrastination can be a byproduct of perfectionism.” Kriseman also implores anyone, not just writers, to create their own ‘personal brand’. “We do all have a personal brand, what others will hear when people introduce us somewhere…it’s all about your brand, telling this story.”
Berkeley Institute for Journalism and Communications students Caitlyn Jones, Lily Van Wyk, Lily Shirmohammad, and Avery Metheny had the opportunity to hear from Kriseman this September.
Today, Kriseman can be found teaching her class on memoir writing, a full embodiment of her mantra that one’s personal brand and life story are unlike any others’, and that in itself are their immense value. Kriseman often stresses that just like life, writing is not easy. In anything, in writing a memoir, or being a mother of two kids, or being a wife of the mayor of St. Pete, there will be plot twists and one’s own character development. “And if you’re ever up against something like that, you can remember that you’re always the author of your own story.”
