John Ellis

Ellis’ nonfiction has appeared in print and online in Relief Journal, African Writer Magazine, Able Muse Review, Kalahari Review, Ginosko Literary Journal, and Embodied Effigies Magazine, among other literary periodicals. His debut memoir, The Desert and C.S. Lewis, about teaching San Francisco’s underprivileged youth and traversing the Mojave Desert, is forthcoming.

Born in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area, Ellis was raised in West Africa, Europe, and the Northeastern United States. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he studied under award-winning and bestselling writers Sarah Manguso and Joyce Maynard at Saint Mary’s College of California, where he was a graduate fellow and scholarship recipient. In 2020, Ellis earned a Fulbright Scholarship to Senegal, to write about West Africa. A former U.S. Soldier, he serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Veterans Studies, an academic journal dedicated to the scholarly investigation of military veterans. 

Ellis considers all things through the grand récit and personhood of Jesus Christ; therefore, his work is an attempt to render his vita experientias within the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.