Denise Fayhee Wolf’s Bio

A quick review of Denise Fayhee-Wolf’s life and it would be easy to conclude that one doesn’t have to die in order to be reincarnated. Throughout the past two decades, Denise has been a farmer, raising corn, beans, horses, cattle, pigs and chickens on a 1,000 acre farm in west central Illinois; a journalist, writing for regional magazines and newspapers; a radio talk show host; a marketing executive and owner of her own advertising agency; a tour operator, escorting little old ladies on bus tours throughout the Midwest; a scuba dive master working on a dive boat in Jupiter, Florida; and her most important job, a mother rearing her son, Joe (who recently blessed her garden with a new grandson, Beckett), and daughter, Kate. Her debut novella, The Bountiful Garden, draws on her vast and varied experiences along her journey filtered through a healthy blend of Christian, New Thought, and Buddhist teachings.

The fifth child born to an Irish Catholic family of six children, Denise earned her adventurer stripes at a young age. At 16 she spent four months as an exchange student in Barranquilla, Colombia and took her first solo flight in her father’s Cessna 172 at just seventeen.

She attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa earning her bachelor’s degree in English. Upon graduation, newly married and with $1,000 gift from her parents in hand, she purchased eight bred gilts (pregnant female pigs) and was soon putting her degree to work tending to the needs of several litters of tiny squealing, pink piglets, cows, calves and corn. Fully embracing “the farm life,” she raised chickens and nurtured a two-acre fruit and vegetable garden.

During her time as a farmer, Denise wrote feature stories for her local daily newspaper, the first of which earned a front cover position. Over the years, she has maintained a steady pursuit writing for magazines, newspapers and business journals. In March, 2009, Denise closed up her home and traveled to Cazadero, California to spend three months at a Buddhist community; drawing inspiration from the redwoods to complete her novel.

An avid believer that, “life is about the lessons,” Denise has been resolute in finding the positive in the events of her life: emotional and financial defeat during the 1980 farm crisis, the breakup of her marriage and resulting “good divorce,” and a tragic automobile accident that claimed the life of her parents and left her sister in a coma.

Following her son’s advice to, “get music back in your life,” Denise moved to Franklin, Tenn where she currently resides with her dog, Bella and her cat, Nono. She is an active and loyal audience for singers and songwriters throughout Nashville and embraces every opportunity to spend weekends on her beloved Buffalo River.