About

Ellen Wright

ELLEN WRIGHT grew up in suburban Boston in the 50’s and 60’s. Although she learned to read spontaneously at age three, spent her childhood engulfed in children’s classics and studied high school English with the legendary Wilbury Crockett, she nevertheless opted for a career in music. Her recent decades have been devoted to designing and directing music programs for churches and schools in the greater New York area, accompanying musical theater productions and playing chamber music on harpsichord, piano and organ.

It was only a matter of time, however, until her abiding love of reading and writing drew her to graduate studies in comparative literature and then to poetry. Sharon Dolin’s poetry group in New York and several summers at Provincetown’s Fine Arts Work Center blessed her with an education in creative writing. She has had work in such journals as New Ohio Review, RHINO, Fifth Wednesday, Paterson Literary Review and Naugatuck River Review. In 2007, Main Street Rag published her chapbook, In Transit.

Wright compiled her new book, Family Portrait with Oilwell, during the quarantine of 2020. An assemblage of memories, myths, fantasies and falsehoods about an oil well in which her maternal grandfather may or may not have had an interest, the collection was published in 2023 by Kelsay Books.

books