Ellen June Wright

Poet

Hackensack, NJ
New Jersey US
Twitter/X: 

Author's Bio

Ellen June Wright is an American writer with British and Caribbean roots. Her work has been published across the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and the US Virgin Islands. She was a finalist in the Mississippi Review 2024 poetry contest and the Third Coast 2024 poetry contest. Her work has been published in many literary journals, including Plume, Missouri Review, Caribbean Writer, Obsidian, Verse Daily, North American Review and is forthcoming in Poetry Magazine. She’s a Cave Canem and Hurston/Wright alumna and has received several Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. Wright also hosts a weekly workshop for Black poets.

 

Publications & Prizes

Journals: ,
Amistad
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Atlanta Review
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Banyan Review
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California Quarterly
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Closed Eye Open
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Friends Journal
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Jelly Bucket
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Journal of New Jersey Poets
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Kelsey Review
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Louisiana Literature
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Mississippi Review
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Orange Blossom Review
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Pembroke Magazine
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Potomac Review
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Talking River Review
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The Caribbean Writer
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Tulsa Review
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Westchester Review
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White Wall Review
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Wild Roof Journal
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You Might Need to Hear This
Prizes won: 

None but...

  1. "Invisible Me,” Ponder Review, Vol. 8, Issue 1, 11/2024, Pushcart Prize Nomination.
  2. "When I Only Knew Your Name,” Orange Blossom Review, June 15 issue, Best of the Net 9/2024 and Pushcart Prize  11/2024 nominations.
  3. "Laure, 1862-63,” Third Coast, 2024, Poetry Contest Finalist.
  4. "These Rites Are For the Living,” Lips, late spring 2024, Pushcart Prize Nomination.
  5. "I’ll Never Forget the Man Who Stepped Onto the Lorraine Hotel’s Balcony" Mississippi Review, Summer 2024, Poetry Contest Finalist.
  6. "Early In My Visit, Mother Calls Me Into the Bathroom," Still: The Journal, June, 2024, Best of the Net 2025 nomination.
  7. "Angela, You Are Part of Every Black Woman I Have Ever Known,” The Elevation Review 2023, Pushcart Prize nomination.
  8. "Unmarked Grave c. 1630,” Eastern Iowa Review, Issue 16 online ed., 2024, Best of the Net nomination.
  9. “I Am What Happens When Nature Has Its Way,” Shō Number 3, 2023, nominated for Orison Books' Best Spiritual Literature Anthology and Pushcart Prize nominations.
  10. "After Learning of His Castration,” LEON: Literary Review, August 1, Issue, Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations.
  11. “What They Carried With Them,” The Good Life Review, Winter 2022 Issue (online) Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations.
  12. "They Came with the Night,” Gordon Square Review, Issue 9, online  November 2021, Pushcart Prize nomination.
  13. "The Hackensack River Early,” Exit 13 Magazine #26, 2021, Pushcart Prize nomination.
  14. "Today, I Heard Obama Sing Amazing Grace Again,” Poetry South 2021, Pushcart Prize nomination.
  15. "She Was All We Knew,” The Worcester Review, Vol. 42, 2021, Pushcart Prize nomination.
  16. “Indentures, (Ars Poetica),” River Mouth Review - 2021 Pushcart Prize nomination.
  17. “I’ve Been Waiting For Hate To Die,” Gulf Stream Magazine - Gulf Stream Summer 2020, Poetry Contest Finalist.

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Gwendolyn Brooks, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, Toni Morrison, Ntozake Shange, Rita Dove, Elizabeth Alexander, Vievee Francis, Elizabeth Bishop, Major Jackson, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Sharon Olds, Dorianne Laux, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, W. S. Merwin, Li-Young Lee, Robert Pinsky and Robert Hayden.
What I'm reading now: 
Attached to the Living World: A New Ecopoetry Anthology by Ann Fisher-Wirth (Editor), Laura-Gray Street (Editor), The Fire Inside, Volume III: Collected Stories & Poems from Zora's Den by Victoria Adams-Kennedy (Author, Editor), Bernice L McFadden (Editor), A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker: 1925-2025 by New Yorker Magazine Inc (Author), Kevin Young (Editor), The Best American Poetry 2024 (The Best American Poetry series) by David Lehman (Author), Mary Jo Salter (Author)

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
African American
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Bedford,
United Kingdom
Raised in: 
Teaneck, NJ
New Jersey
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: May 27, 2025