E L L I E M A T H E W S
:: AUTHOR • H O M E • C O N T A C T • A P P E A R A N C E S
THE SHORT VERSION
Ellie is a Northwest native.
She lives with her husband on
Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. After studying geography and working
as a cartographer, she began
writing in her late forties.
She has won cooking and
writing awards.
Washington with emphasis on cartography and graphic arts. Her illustrations
have appeared in books, magazines, newspapers, instructional videos, and
courtroom graphics. Later, she linked her interests in graphics with software
development; she designed the appearance of automated mapping, graphing,
and presentation systems. She taught short courses in Graphic Design,
Statistics Illustration, and Principles of Computer Graphics. She authored The
Presentation Design Book (Ventana Press) and published articles on digital type,
presentation graphics, and color mechanics. She worked for her own company,
for Florida Computer Graphics, Tektronix, and Aldus (now Adobe). Mathews
has developed illustrations for trials involving employment data, construction
timelines, scene-of-the-crime diagrams, and medical malpractice allegations.
She has produced maps for city, county, state, and federal agencies as well as
private entities.
Then she put all that aside and became a writer.
Some people think that winning a $1,000,000 annuity in Pillsbury's famous
Bake-Off is Ellie's greatest moment, but she puts more weight on being a mother
and a grandmother. After that she counts her publications among life's
accomplishments. The Pillsbury win was a stroke of good luck, pure and simple.
Very good luck indeed.
Recipient, 2007 Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature
First Place, Alternative Category, Sutter Home Build a Better Burger, 2005
First Place, Short Fiction, Peninsula College, 2004,
Finalist, memoir, 'Let's Pretend,' Writer's Digest 1999
Finalist, memoir, 'Becoming Lydia,' Writer's Digest 1999
Finalist, The Heekin Foundation Fellowships, 1999
Grant, Seattle Artists Program for Literary Artists, 1998
Grand Prize, Pillsbury Bake-Off, 1998
Fellowship, Fishtrap Writers' Conference, Enterprise, Oregon, 1997
BOOKS
The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir, Berkley Books, 2008
The Linden Tree, Milkweed Editions, 2007
Ambassador to the Penguins: A Naturalist's Year Aboard a Yankee Whaleship, Godine, 2003
SHORT FICTION, POETRY & ANTHOLOGIES
"Rosary," anthology selection, Floating Bridge Press, 2006
"Maintenance Issues," Tidepools Literary Magazine, 2005
"Riding Midnight," Cicada, July, 2004
"High Wire," Peoples Publishing, Language Arts Series 2003
"Face Value," Cicada, March, 2002
"Fences," Cicada, July 2001
"Saying Grace," Australia's School Magazine, March 2001
"The Izzie Show," Cicada, 2001
"High Wire," Cicada, September 2000
"Family Pictures," Fishtrap Anthology, 2000
"The Thickness of Water," Cicada, November 1999
"Saying Grace," Cricket, May 1999
"Owen's Room," Fishtrap Anthology, 1998
"Territory," Cicada, November 1998
"The Wolf Tree," FlipSide Magazine, Spring 1998
"Rosary," the Metro Poetry Project, King County, WA 1998
Four Poems, The Tinker's Quarterly, 1998
"Thanksgiving," the Metro Poetry Project, King County, WA, 1997
"Christmas Gifts," Friends Bulletin, December, 1995
ACTIVITIES
Member, Port Townsend Writers Conference Advisory Board, 2009
Session Leader, Port Townsend Writers Conference, 2008-09
Keynote Speaker, Writing It Real Conference, 2008
Writer in Residence, Centrum Fundation 2008, 2009
Organizer & Executive Chef, Madrona Writers Retreat, 2005-09
Co-Director, Seattle Writers Read 1999, sponsored by Richard Hugo House
Editor/Designer, Gleamings, Seattle's University Friends Meeting, 1995-01
Letterpress Printer, ongoing