Ellen Birkett Morris is the author of Beware the Tall Grass, winner of the Donald L. Jordan Award for Literary Excellence, judged by Lan Samantha Chang, published by CSU Press. She is also the author of Lost Girls: Short Stories, winner of the Pencraft Award and finalist for the Clara Johnson, IAN and Best Book awards. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, Antioch Review, Notre Dame Review, and South Carolina Review, among other journals. She is a winner of the Bevel Summers Prize for short fiction. Morris is a recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship for her fiction from the Kentucky Arts Council.
Morris is also the author of Abide and Surrender, poetry chapbooks. Her poetry has appeared in The Clackamas Literary Review, Juked, Gastronomica, and Inscape, among other journals, and in eight anthologies. Morris won top prize in the 2008 Binnacle Ultra-Short Edition and was a finalist for the 2019 and 2020 Rita Dove Poetry Prize. Her poem “Abide” was featured on NPR’s A Way with Words. Her essays have appeared in Newsweek, AARP’s The Ethel, Oh Reader magazine, and on National Public Radio.
Morris holds an MFA in creative writing from Queens University-Charlotte.
https://www.ellenbirkettmorris.com/
Awayland, Ramona Ausubel, Random House – A mother fades into the mist, a lonely Cyclops tries online dating, a young boy looking for direction takes a job in Turkey and ends up comforting a grieving widow, mummified animals robbed from Egyptian pyramids offer their “thanks.”
Christmas in July, Alan Michael Parker, Dzanc books – In his latest novel, Alan Michael Parker tells the story of the Christmas Danzig, a thirteen-year-old with terminal cancer
Halsey Street, Naima Coster, Amazon – Naima Coster’s debut novel HALSEY STREET is a story of estrangement and reconciliation that follows the effects of gentrification on the life of a family and the Brooklyn neighborhood where they reside.
Author Interview: White Houses, Amy Bloom, Random House – Amy Bloom’s novel White Houses is a compelling fictive exploration of the love affair between Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok. This is Bloom’s first book of historical fiction. The novel belies the common narrative of Eleanor Roosevelt as a woman who was disappointed in marriage and became an asexual being.
The Going and Goodbye, Shuly Xóchitl Cawood, Platypus Press – To understand love, you must first understand power—the balance of it, when to give it up, when to take it back.
Story of Arthur Truluv, Elizabeth Berg, Penguin – the 28th book from the prolific author Elizabeth Berg, explores issues of grief, death and aging with a gentle touch that reminds readers of the everyday grace that can be found in life.
Heating and Cooling, Beth Ann Fennelly, W.W.Norton – Good writing in any genre rings with truth, personal and universal. In her latest book of micro-memoirs, Heating & Cooling, Beth Ann Fennelly shares her truth about life’s moments, big and small, with poignancy and humor.
Segal Explores Complex Family Life in The Awkward Age An exclusive Authorlink interview By Columnist Ellen Birkett Morris November 2017 The Awkward Age by Francesca Segal Buy this Book at Amazon.com In her second novel, The Awkward Age, author Francesca...
Extraordinary Adventures, Daniel Wallace, Macmillan – Daniel Wallace is not particularly interested in tracking the origin of his latest novel Extraordinary Adventures. In the years it takes to write a book, Wallace says the creation of the writing starts to get fictionalized.
The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo, Ian Stansel, Houghton Mifflin – Ian Stansel had been working on a novel for two and a half years when he decided to lay that project aside to write what would become his debut novel, The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo.