Ellen Boyette

Ellen Boyette grew up in rural North Carolina and decided to commit to a life of writing after winning a national poetry contest as a ninth grader. She studied English and Creative Writing at UNC Chapel Hill, where she received a major scholarship through Random House Publishing and an Academy of American Poets College Prize. While earning her MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she also taught undergraduates in the English Department. She continued teaching undergraduates while in her doctoral studies at the University of Georgia. Her area of focus was on contemporary writing related to magic, the internet, and Victorian ghosts. She now studies philosophy (for fun) through Yale University online and has taught high schoolers at the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio for the last seven years.

She is the author of three collections of poems, and her writing has been featured in The Columbia Review, The Iowa Review, Bennington Review, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She has served as an editor in multiple national and international publishing
houses and literary presses.

Her path through academia has been nonlinear and she is proud of this! She has taken academic breaks, transferred schools, received accommodations, done work-studies, applied for every scholarship and grant known to mankind, and can support students whose path may necessitate a similar trajectory. More than anything, Ellen has refined expertise working with students to make sure their voice, story, skills, passions, and future aspirations come through in a unique and standout essay. She loves getting to know students and helping them bring out the storytelling talent that she fundamentally believes everyone naturally possesses. She is highly empathetic, patient, and curious about everything.