Ellen M. Taylor

Professor of English, Dr. Ellen M. Taylor received her doctorate in the Language, Literacy, and Culture program at Harvard University, focusing on narrative development. She completed her BA in English at Tulane University, and her MA in poetry from the University of New Hampshire.

Her signature classes at UMA include Creative Writing, which focuses on the short story, poetry, and mixed genres; American Stories: Reading and Writing Memoir; as well as literature, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Her research interests include the work of 19th century writer Celia Thaxter, and Maine poets Elizabeth Coatsworth and Kate Barnes. She teaches at the Augusta campus, as well as in Rockland and at the Maine State Prison. Her courses are a combination of lecture, discussion, and writing exercises. All are writing intensive.

Dr. Taylor has three poetry collections from Moon Pie Press, Homelands (2022), Compass Rose (2015), and Floating (2009), as well as two chapbooks Humming to Snails (2005), and Letters from the Third World by Sheltering Pines Press (2006). Taylor chairs the annual Terry Plunkett Maine Poetry Festival, held each April at UMA. She has published in literary journals regionally, nationally, and internationally.