About Aimee

Aimee Miller Zaring is the author of Flavors from Home: Refugees in Kentucky Share Their Stories and Comfort Foods, winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best Charity/Fundraising Cookbook in North America. She is the recipient of an Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council and two artist enrichment grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women.

A fourth-generation Kentuckian, born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Aimee learned how to read and tell stories at an early age. In fact, some of the first stories she learned to read were her very own, thanks to an innovative “write to read” technique whereby she told original stories to her mother, who would transcribe the words and help her read them back. This creative exercise ignited in Zaring a lifelong love of language and stories.

Aimee earned a B.A. in English and Psychology from Bellarmine University and an MFA in Writing from Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Adirondack Review, The Courier-Journal, and elsewhere.

Growing up in a “Border State,” living in the Midwest for many years, traveling extensively at home and abroad, and teaching immigrants from over twenty-five countries has convinced Aimee that we are all more alike than different. Her work reflects her interest in bringing people together, drawing attention to unheard voices, and helping people discover and use their unique gifts to bring hope and healing to the world.

Never one to stay in her own lane, Aimee has been a zoo docent, travel agent, American Red Cross outreach director, English language instructor, and small business owner. She volunteered in a women’s prison and harvested grapes in a vineyard. Her superpowers include her infectious enthusiasm and finding joy in the small things. She loves to learn about different cultures, geek out on neuroscience, and research holistic health and wellness topics.

For many years, Aimee felt disconnected from herself and others because she lived in a state of chronic fight-or-flight, which manifested as a rarely discussed body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB). The standard therapeutic approaches proved ineffective, and she’d all but given up hope of feeling at home in her own body when she stumbled upon her first somatic practice. She has been exploring somatic methods and embodied living ever since, even becoming a certified Somatic Stress Release™ practitioner.

Her forthcoming memoir, Cutting Loose: My Journey from Survival Mode to Embodied Flow, introduces practices for self-regulation and somatic healing to help harness the body’s wisdom, break unhealthy patterns, and live with more ease, flow, and freedom.

Aimee lives in Northern Kentucky with her life partner, two bonus children, and Lizzie, a Pocket Beagle mix, rescued from a gas station in Mississippi.