Except for about two dozen poems published in a local newspaper in 1927-28 (under the initials A. K.), Kennelly began her career at the age of 18 with the publication of three poems in "Improvement Era", a publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in 1930. Between September of that year and January 1936, she published a total of 28 poems and five short stories in this LDS periodical. Although the majority of this work is considered sentimental and focused on love and romance, sub-themes appear as well, hinting at the insight into mature love, motherhood, death, and the restorative working of faith and nature (including human nature) that are expressed in "The Peaceable Kingdom".