Ellen E. Withers

Ellen Withers is an award winning fiction writer, freelance writer and retired insurance fraud investigator. Her professional writing career began in 2003, as a freelance contributor to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. She was editor of an international magazine, SIU Today, for insurance fraud investigators for ten years. She remains on their editorial committee. Ellen has written the monthly resident feature for Life in Chenal Magazine since 2006. Her non-fiction articles have been included in international, national and regional magazines. She’s a contributing columnist to Writers Monthly Magazine, an online guide for professional writers, on the subject of Writing for Contests.

Her publishing credits include sixteen fiction stories included in anthologies and two creative non-fiction stories featured on KUAR’s radio show Tales from the South. One of her short stories garnered a nomination for the prestigious Pushcart Prize in the published short story category.

She serves as an officer of the Pioneer Branch of the National League of American Pen Women and as a board member of the Arkansas Writers Conference.

Ellen credits her success, in the world of writing, to the generosity and kindness of established writers who shared their expertise and nurtured her writing ambitions. She is most grateful for the mentoring provided by Dusty Richards, three time Western Writers of America Spur winner and Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame Honoree.

She is completing work on a cozy mystery set in a fictional town in Missouri, based on her picturesque hometown of Mexico, Missouri. Ellen is also developing a mystery involving the investigation of the disappearance of a man set in central Arkansas and working to complete a historical novel set in Northeast Texas.

When not writing or reading, Ellen enjoys spending time with her family, traveling the world with her adventurous friends and performing with Top of the Rock Chorus, a Sweet Adeline chorus located in central Arkansas.