Ellie Block

Ellie Block began her writing career under her given name Brett Ellen Block—she, too, was named for a Hemingway character. She is the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Grave of God’s Daughter and the Macavity Award–nominated thriller The Lightning Rule. Her debut short-story collection, Destination Known, won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and garnered her the distinguished Michener-Copernicus Fellowship. As Ellen Block, she also writes women’s fiction, including the internationally lauded novels The Language of Sand and The Definition of Wind.

Ellie received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, where she studied fine arts and won the Hopwood and Haugh awards for fiction. She went on to earn graduate degrees from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the University of East Anglia’s esteemed fiction-writing program. Her work has been translated into numerous languages around the world.