Elaina Ellis

Elaina M. Ellis is a poet, editor, curator, and performing artist. She is the author of the poetry collection WRITE ABOUT AN EMPTY BIRDCAGE (Write Bloody Publishing), and her poems have appeared in Vinyl Poetry, Muzzle Magazine, The Iowa Review, Poetry Northwest, and Horsethief. Elaina has produced more than a dozen cross-disciplinary, collaborative art events, including 2012: POETRY APOCALYPSE, an original libretto devised and performed with the Seattle Rock Orchestra. Her most recent project, IN REAL TIME, was an attempt to find connection in loneliness through long-distance dance. She is a Lambda Literary Fellow, a self-identified Mountain Femme, and a founding member of the Kulshan Academy for Queer Artists. She has served as a consultant for organizations including Jewish Voice for Peace, Solid Ground, and Bent Writing Institute, and is proud to work as Editor at Copper Canyon Press.

Elaina received 2018 GAP Award funding to revise and complete I’M ONLY PRAYING TO BELIEVE WHAT’S TRUE, her second poetry collection. Borrowing text and impulses from the biblical book of Ezekiel, the project explores concepts of submission, domination, and self-assertion as played out on homo-erotic, spiritual, and cultural planes.

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.