Ellen Bass

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.

Ellen Bass studied at Goucher College, Boston University and Boston University College of Arts and Sciences. The recorded working language is English. Places of work recorded in the authority are Marblehead and Santa Cruz. Employment is recorded with Pacific University. Works named in the authority record are The Courage to Heal. Distinctions recorded are Lambda Literary Award and Guggenheim Fellowship.

• Name — Ellen Bass • Born — 16 June 1947 • Birthplace — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Occupation — * Poet • author • Education — Goucher College (BA) Boston University (MA) • Notable Works — 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 — ellenbass.com • Genre — Poetry Nonfiction

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.

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 has 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.

* * • Of Separateness and Merging. Autumn Press. 1977.. • For Earthly Survival. Moving Parts Press. 1980. • Our Stunning Harvest. New Society Publishers. 1984.. * * * • Indigo. Copper Canyon Press. 2020..

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