Ellen Bass

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American writer (born 1947)

title: "Ellen Bass" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1947-births", "living-people", "atlantic-city-high-school-alumni", "goucher-college-alumni", "boston-university-college-of-arts-and-sciences-alumni", "poets-from-pennsylvania", "poets-from-new-jersey", "poets-from-california", "writers-from-santa-cruz,-california", "writers-from-philadelphia", "pacific-university-faculty", "lambda-literary-award-for-lesbian-poetry-winners", "national-endowment-for-the-arts-fellows", "people-from-pleasantville,-new-jersey", "people-from-ventnor-city,-new-jersey", "20th-century-american-poets", "21st-century-american-poets", "writing-teachers", "american-women-academics", "american-lesbian-writers", "writers-from-atlantic-county,-new-jersey", "20th-century-american-lgbtq-people", "21st-century-american-lgbtq-people", "lesbian-poets", "academics-from-santa-cruz,-california", "20th-century-american-women-poets", "21st-century-american-women-poets"] description: "American writer (born 1947)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Bass" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American writer (born 1947) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox writer"]

FieldValue
nameEllen Bass
imageEllen Bass 9170113.jpg
captionBass in 2018
birth_date
birth_placePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
occupation
educationGoucher College (BA)
Boston University (MA)
notableworksThe Courage to Heal, Indigo, Like a Beggar, The Human Line, Mules of Love
spouseJanet Bryer
childrenSaraswati Bryer-Bass
Max Bryer-Bass
awardsPushcart Prize (2003, 2014, 2017)
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (2014)
Lambda Literary Award (2002)
website
genrePoetry
Nonfiction
::

| name = Ellen Bass | image = Ellen Bass 9170113.jpg | alt = | caption = Bass in 2018 | birth_date = | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = | education = Goucher College (BA) Boston University (MA) | notableworks = The Courage to Heal, Indigo, Like a Beggar, The Human Line, Mules of Love | spouse = Janet Bryer | children = Saraswati Bryer-Bass Max Bryer-Bass | awards = Pushcart Prize (2003, 2014, 2017) National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (2014) Lambda Literary Award (2002) | website = | genre = Poetry Nonfiction | influences =

Ellen Bass (born June 16, 1947) is an American poet and author. She has won three Pushcart Prizes and a Lambda Literary Award for her 2002 book Mules of Love. She co-authored the 1991 book The Courage to Heal about recovery from child sexual abuse. She received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2014 and was elected chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2017. Bass taught poetry at Pacific University and has founded poetry programs for people in prison.

Early life and education

Bass grew up in Pleasantville, New Jersey, where her parents owned a liquor store. Her family later moved to Ventnor City, New Jersey, where she graduated from Atlantic City High School. She attended Goucher College, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1968 with a bachelor's degree. She pursued a master's degree in creative writing at Boston University, where she studied with Anne Sexton, and graduated in 1970.

Career

From 1970 to 1974, Bass worked at Project Place, a social service center in Boston.

She co-wrote the best-selling The Courage to Heal with Laura Davis about healing from childhood sexual abuse, as well as developing training seminars for professionals, offering workshops for survivors, and lecturing to mental health professionals nationally and internationally. The book has been widely criticized; neither Bass nor Davis have any formal training in psychotherapy or psychiatry, and critics argue that the book's scientifically unsound therapeutic advice exacerbated the moral panic over satanic ritual abuse. She is a co-founder of the Survivors Healing Center in Santa Cruz, California, a non-profit organization offering services to survivors of child sexual abuse.

Bass teaches at the low-residency Master of Fine Arts program at Pacific University in Oregon. She has taught workshops in Santa Cruz, California since she moved there in 1974 as well as nationally. In 2013, she founded the Poetry Program at the Salinas Valley State Prison, which offers a weekly workshop to incarcerated men. In 2014, she also founded the Santa Cruz Poetry Project, which offers weekly workshops to people incarcerated in Santa Cruz County jails.

Bass has written poetry books including Indigo (2020), which was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize, a Publishing Triangle Award, and a Northern California Book Award; Like a Beggar (2014), which was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize, a Publishing Triangle Award, the Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry, and a Northern California Book Award; The Human Line (2007); and Mules of Love (2002), which won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry. Her poems have been published widely in journals and anthologies, including The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, and Ploughshares.

Her nonfiction books include I Never Told Anyone (co-edited with Louise Thornton, HarperCollins, 1983); Free Your Mind (written with Kate Kaufman, HarperCollins, 1996); and The Courage to Heal (HarperCollins, 1988). They have been translated into twelve languages.

In 2017, Bass was elected as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and served until 2022.

Bass was named the Santa Cruz County Arts Commission Artist of the Year in 2019.

Bass lives in Santa Cruz with her wife, Janet Bryer. She has two children.

Awards

Bass was awarded the Elliston Book Award for Poetry from the University of Cincinnati, the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize, The Missouri Review'’s Larry Levis Prize, the Greensboro Review Poetry Prize, the New Letters Poetry Prize, the Chautauqua Literary Journal Prize for Poetry, and four Pushcart Prizes (2003, 2015, 2017). She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the California Arts Council.

Indigo (2020) was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize, a Publishing Triangle Award, and a Northern California Book Award. Like a Beggar (2014) was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize, a Publishing Triangle Award, the Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry, and a Northern California Book Award. The Human Line (2007) was named among the notable books of 2007 in the poetry section by the San Francisco Chronicle. Mules of Love (2002) won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry.

Published works

Poetry

Nonfiction

Children's books

References

References

  1. (2020-05-16). "Interview // Any Life Is a Miracle: a Conversation with Ellen Bass".
  2. Duran, Mary. [https://www.newspapers.com/article/press-of-atlantic-city-profiles-in-south/174713586/ "Good night, Sweet Prince"], July 1, 1973. Accessed June 17, 2025, via [[Newspapers.com]]. "''No More Masks,'' soon to be published by Doubleday-Anchor Press, Garden City, New York, was edited by the daughter of a Ventnor couple, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Bass of 103 South Rosborough Avenue. Ellen Bass, an Atlantic City High School graduate, is credited with the anthology of poems along with co-editor Florence Howe."
  3. Wood, Stacy. (2014). "Finding Aid for the Ellen Bass Papers LSC.2227".
  4. "The Courage To Heal Revised Edition: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sex Paperback – April 6 1992".
  5. Underwager, Ralph. (1992). "Book Review - 'The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse'".
  6. (2002-09-24). "Sexual assault expert Ellen Bass featured at 'An Evening of Healing' Sept. 26 at Syracuse University".
  7. Tavris, Carol. (2020). "Mistakes were made (but not by me) third edition: why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts". Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
  8. McHugh, Paul R.. (2008). "Try to remember: psychiatry's clash over meaning, memory, and mind". Dana Press.
  9. "Survivors Healing Center".
  10. "Ellen Bass".
  11. "Ellen Bass".
  12. Brown, Ellen F.. (5 January 2016). "In Plain Sight: The Vanishing of Ellen Bass".
  13. (2018-05-30). "Truth and Beauty: A Poetry Workshop with Ellen Bass and Marie Howe".
  14. (2014-06-05). "Arts-in-Corrections Programs Return to California State Prisons".
  15. "Ellen Bass".
  16. "BE A VOLUNTEER!".
  17. "ABOUT".
  18. Winter, Renee. (2023-07-16). "I teach poetry in the Santa Cruz jail, but it's 'my guys' who are teaching me".
  19. (2021-10-28). "2021 PATERSON POETRY PRIZE WINNER".
  20. (2021-04-28). "Recommended Reading: Indigo by Ellen Bass".
  21. "40th Annual Northern California Book Awards".
  22. (2015-09-15). "THE 2015 PATERSON POETRY PRIZE".
  23. "The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry".
  24. "Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award Past Winners".
  25. (2015-03-04). "The 27th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists".
  26. "34th Annual Northern California Book Awards".
  27. (2003-07-10). "15th Annual Lambda Literary Awards".
  28. "Ellen Bass". Condé Nast.
  29. "Ellen Bass".
  30. "Ellen Bass".
  31. "Ellen Bass".
  32. Collins, Glenn. (1983-10-28). "3 BOOKS ON CHILD SEX ABUSE". The New York Times.
  33. (1996-05-10). "Free Your Mind". Harper Collins.
  34. "The Courage to Heal by Ellen Bass, Laura Davis (Ebook)".
  35. "Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse".
  36. Thaler, Shmuel. (2019-05-01). "Art Seen {{!}} Poet and writer Ellen Bass named 2019 Artist of the Year".
  37. (2017). "Ellen Bass II".
  38. (2005-03-23). "The Feminist Press".
  39. Purdy, Gilbert Wesley. "The Human Line".
  40. (2020-04-25). "Ellen Bass - Poesie da 'Indigo'".
  41. Traister, Daniel. "Ellen Bass, 'When I Die'". University of Pennsylvania.
  42. "Ellen Bass".
  43. "Ellen Bass".
  44. Villalon, Oscar. (2007-12-23). "Bay Area authors' books among best of '07". San Francisco Chronicle.

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