Ellen Adams

Ellen Adams writes essays, fiction, and songs with a particular interest in the unexpected doorways between kinship and estrangement. As a teenager in Spokane, one of her earliest jobs included Spanish interpretation at a cardiology clinic. That experience of ferrying the conditions of patients’ figurative and anatomical hearts between languages confirmed for her the urgent necessity – and, often, devastating absence – of language as a bridge. Linguistic fluency became pillar and propeller for her work, leading to years-long academic and artistic engagement overseas. Her current project focuses on the unexpected complications and far-reaching consequences of language acquisition.

Recently named a Lambda Literary Fellow and Ploughshares’ Emerging Writer in Nonfiction, Ellen’s work appears in Black Warrior Review, Kenyon Review Online, Crazyhorse, Singapore Art Museum, and elsewhere. Before settling in Seattle, she was a Fulbright grantee researching politically engaged Thai contemporary art. She graduated from Princeton University and holds an MFA from Brooklyn College.

Ellen received a 2018 GAP Award funding to support logistical costs of attending two extended artist residency programs in Western Canada. In those months of residency, she will focus on researching, writing, and revising her nonfiction manuscript-in-progress about the unexpected consequences – both windfalls and collateral damages – of adult language acquisition.

Artist Trust thanks the Amazon Literary Partnership for underwriting this award through Artist Trust’s Corporate Partnership program. For information about supporting Washington State artists, visit here.