Ellie Belew is a novelist who also writes some short fiction. She believes in the power of the stories we tell ourselves and each other, and what we could know if we paid better attention.

Her fiction follows generations of sometimes hard-bitten characters in one allegorical town. Run Plant Fly, her first novel, tells the story of the first virtual reality theme park as it forever alters the fabric of a small community. Ursula LeGuin calls Run Plant Fly "a fireball of a novel [where] the lives of ordinary people in a small American town strike across each other and flare up into pain and beauty."