Non-Fiction Writer

Back in “the aughts,” Polly started publishing short essays in newspapers and magazines, developing her perspective as someone who was sorting out her own nonreligious background with her husband’s role as a faith leader. She launched a WordPress blog called “The Panorama of a Pastor’s Wife” in 2011. Rootstock Publishing brought out her first full-length book, a memoir, in June 2025. Shortly before the book came out, she moved her blog over to “Side by Side” on Substack, where she continues to write regularly.

Polly’s interests include exploring how moments of almost perfect harmony — when two elements merge seamlessly — and moments of clear demarcation — when borderlines show up vividly — can co-exist in daily life. In particular, she watches the interaction, sometimes jostling, between the secular and the religious worlds. And she celebrates how individuals (particularly teenagers) strive to chart their own distinct paths while also joining forces with others for the good of their communities.