Ellen Bass

Ellen Bass’s most recent collection of poems, Indigo, was published in 2020. Her other collections include Like a Beggar, The Human Line, and Mules of Love. In 1973, she co-edited the first major anthology of women’s poetry, No More Masks! Her nonfiction books include The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse and Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth. Among her awards are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the California Arts Council, as well as a Lambda Literary Award for Poetry, and four Pushcart Prizes. A chancellor emerita of the Academy of American Poets, Bass founded poetry workshops at Salinas Valley State Prison as well as in the jails in Santa Cruz, California, and teaches in the MFA writing program at Pacific University.