Ellen Gray Massey

A teacher of children and adults for forty years and a writer/editor for most of that time, Ellen  is also active in promoting appreciation of the Ozarks as a speaker for regional groups.  In past years, she has given 120 talks for the Missouri Humanities Council.  Besides her many novels and nonfiction books, she is author of numerous short stories and magazine articles.

A frequent award-winner, Ellen was one of the charter inductees into the first Writers Hall of Fame of America.  The Missouri Writers Guild has four times awarded her their annual Best Book Award, most recently for Borderland Homecoming, and their Major Work award for A Candle Within Her Soul, as well as the Guild's Best Script award for A Life I Can See.  In 1995 Ellen was a finalist in the Western Writers of America Spur Awards for short fiction and again in 1997 for her biography, A Candle Within Her Soul.  She is also a member of the Missouri Folklore Society.

Ellen's play, A Life I Can See, a two-act musical play set in the 1930s Ozarks, ran for three performances, March 10, 11, and 12, 2000, at Cowen Civic Center in Lebanon, Missouri  She wrote the music and lyrics for the play.

See a profile of Ellen that appeared in American Profile and still another profile from Persimmon Hill, a publication of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

For more information about Ellen Gray Massey, visit Ozark Writers, Inc., a nonprofit corporation organized in the state of Missouri.  Its goal is to foster, encourage and promote writers from the Ozarks and to expose the reading public to the literature of the region.

You can also find some of Ellen's books at WritersWest.com.