"Morris has an ability to wring a lot of emotion out of a few scant details, giving the feeling of a much longer work. Many share settings and characters, which contributes to a sense of interconnectivity and added meaning... she demonstrates a shrewd understanding of what makes her characters tick. In the end, readers will leave the collection feeling as though they’ve lived pieces of several real lives. A varied set of tales from a skilled practitioner of the short form."
-- Kirkus Reviews
1st Place, Pencraft Awards, Fiction - Short Stories/Anthologies 
Finalist, Clara Johnson Award for literature with a purpose  
Finalist, Independent Author Network Award, Short Stories
2021 Reader's Favorite Silver Medal Winner in Literary Fiction
Finalist, 2020 Best Book Awards, Fiction: Short Story  
Notable 100, Shelf Unbound
In her debut collection, Lost Girls, author Ellen Birkett Morris takes a deep dive into the lives of women and girls, artfully mixing humor and insight to illuminate relationships and characters with crisp, elegant prose and wit.
Morris explores the experiences of women and girls as they grieve, find love, face uncertainty, take a stand, find their future and say goodbye to the past. A young woman creates a ritual to celebrate the life of a kidnapped girl, an unmarried woman wanders into a breast feeder’s support group and stays, a grieving mother finds solace in an unlikely place, and a young girl discovers more than she bargained for when she spies on her neighbors. Though they may seem lost, each finds their center as they confront the challenges and expectations of womanhood.
Ellen Birkett Morris is an award-winning writer and teacher based in Louisville, Kentucky. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, The Antioch Review, The Notre Dame Review, and The South Carolina Review, among other journals. Her essays have appeared in Newsweek, AARP's The Ethel, Oh Reader Magazine and on National Public Radio. She is a finalist for the Donald L. Jordan Prize for Literary Excellence. winner of the Bevel Summers Prize for Short Fiction and the recipient of a Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council. Morris holds an MFA from Queens University-Charlotte.
Lost Girls Reviews
Bookmarks: Literary Hub 
Kirkus Reviews
Lit Pub: Beautiful and Contemplative
Southern Review of Books: Defiance and Female Relationships in Morris' Debut Collection, 'Lost Girls" 
Book Public: Texas Public Radio 
"Lost Girls' is a Great Addition to Your Summer Reading List
Elspells Book Blog
Story Circle Network 
Finding Lost Things, The New Southern Fugitives
Don Noble, Alabama Public Radio 
Magnum Opal 
The Bookwormery
Lost Girls Interviews
Southern Review of Books: The Mystery and Female Power of Ellen Birkett Morris' Lost Girls 
Kentucky Monthly Magazine: On Respect
Think Humanities Podcast 
PowHer Books 
Jane's Stories Press Foundation 
Selected Prose Podcast 
Chapters with Carter Seaton 
The Perks of Being a Book Lover Podcast
Now, Appalachia Podcast 
You Read It Here First
​Finding Ellen Birkett Morris: An Interview with Dean Monti
Bidwell Hollow Interview 
TBR: Lost Girls
Southern Literary Review 
Book Q and A with Deborah Kalb 
Our Turn: Q and A with Ellen Birkett Morris 
One Question
An Interview with Sarahlyn Bruck 
Lost Girls Features 
Research Notes: Necessary Fiction  
Let's Deconstruct a Story: Inheritance 
If My Book 
​Lost Girls Playlist
Five Ways to Create Memorable Characters 
The Revivalist: One Story-Helter Skelter
Hypertext: Excerpt, Heavy Metal
How We Are
​Lost Girls Readings
Accents Radio
Hidden Timber Reading Series
Kathryn Ramsperger's Story Hour 
INKY Reading Series 
Flights Magazine

Read Ellen's Work 

Check out some of Ellen's fiction, poetry and essays here.
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CV

See Ellen's background here.      
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Contact

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