Press Kit
Short Bio
Ellen Booraem spent nineteen years as a small-town journalist before quitting her day job to write three award-winning fantasies for readers age ten and older (The Unnameables, Small Persons with Wings, and Texting the Underworld). A fourth book, River Magic, comes out April 27, 2021, from Penguin/Dial Books for Young Readers.
Booraem volunteers as a writing coach for students in her local middle school and is a founding organizer for Word, the annual Blue Hill (Maine) literary arts festival. She lives in Brooklin, Maine, with her partner, painter Robert Shillady.
Longer Bio
Photo by Kate Schafer Testerman.
Click for high-resolution image.
Fantasy meets reality in Ellen Booraem’s middle-grade novels—notably the upcoming “River Magic” (Penguin/Dial Books for Young Readers), which will be in bookstores April 27, 2021.
Booraem is also the author of “Texting the Underworld,” “Small Persons with Wings” and “The Unnameables,” a finalist for the Maine Literary Award. Among other honors, her books have made “best of the year” lists including Kirkus Reviews, Publisher’s Weekly, The Washington Post, and the American Library Association, and have been Junior Library Guild and Scholastic Book Fair selections.
A Maine elementary school writing coach for fifteen years, Booraem has presented workshops on character development, journalism, and the writing life for audiences ranging in age from middle school to adult. She also offers online classroom visits.
Booraem was a Maine newspaper reporter and editor for nineteen years, serving most recently as arts editor of The Ellsworth American. She has freelanced for newspapers and magazines and in corporate settings. A graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, she is a founding organizer for Word, the annual Blue Hill (Maine) literary arts festival. She lives in Brooklin, Maine, with her partner, painter Robert Shillady.
Click images for high resolution.