About Ellen

Born in the Bronx, New York to a mixed marriage (her mother was a Democrat, her father a Republican), Ellen understood from an early age that family relationships are a complicated matter.

She managed to get through her early years, and by the time she graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a Magna Cum Laude degree in English, she was a registered Democrat and still, remarkably, on speaking terms with her father. The lesson she learned is that nothing is thicker than blood. Except maybe her cousin Cliff.

After college, Ellen was hired by a small medical book publisher with such a tiny budget they couldn't afford a trash can for her desk, let alone a living salary. So one year later she left for the glamorous side of publishing and went to work for a giant literary agency.

The job seemed like a dream come true for the 23-year-old Ellen, whose romanticized notion of writers still fueled her passions. But her tender young nature was so ill-suited to the maniacal atmosphere of the place that she grabbed the next job that came along, and went to work doing marketing and publicity for a trade association that promoted home sewing. 

For someone didn't own a bobbin and couldn't imagine what they were used for, the job wasn't exactly a fit. From there she found her way to the marketing departments of various magazines, where she got to hone her copywriting skills. Eventually, Ellen flexed her entrepreneurial muscles and opened her own boutique sales promotion agency.

Today, Ellen lives on Long Island with her husband and three children. And while her mother has now joined her father in the remote waters of the far right, her home is the middle ground where the whole family gathers, eats, laughs, loves and sometimes fights. She wouldn't have it any other way.  

Ellen Meister is the author of three novels, THE OTHER LIFE (Putnam, 1/11), THE SMART ONE (Avon A, 8/08) and SECRET CONFESSIONS OF THE APPLEWOOD PTA (Morrow/Avon, 8/06), as well as numerous short stories. In addition to writing, she served as editor for a literary magazine, runs an online mentoring group for women authors, and curates for DimeStories, a literary radio program. Ellen does public speaking about her books and other writing-related issues. She is working on her fourth novel, FAREWELL, DOROTHY PARKER.

Hy Goldberg, Visions Photography