A writer, naturalist, and cigar-box artist, Ellen Orleans is the author of five books of queer humor, including Lammy winner The Butches of Madison County. Her story “Outreach” won a 2007 Gertrude Press Chapbook Competition. In 1993, she co-edited Boulder Voices, an anthology responding to Colorado’s Amendment 2, an anti-gay referendum later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ellen’s writing has been published in Primal Picnics; Milk and Honey; The Incredible Shrinking Story; and A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park among many others. Her essays and reviews have appeared in Trickhouse, Blithe House Quarterly, The Washington Post, Rain Taxi, the Lambda Book Review and more.

Ellen lives in Boulder, Colorado where she works as the City of Boulder’s Employee Sustainability Coordinator, helping City staff with questions on biking, busing, recycling, composting and more. At home, she surrounds herself with good books, good cats, and good neighbors.