Thomas Sayers Ellis (October 5, 1963 – July 17, 2025) was an American poet, photographer, musician, bandleader and teacher. He previously taught as an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Bennington College in Vermont, and also at Sarah Lawrence College until 2012.
Early life Ellis was born on October 5, 1963, in Washington, D.C.,Beltway Poetry Quarterly >Vol. 7 No. 3, Summer 2006 > Thomas Sayers Ellis and attended Dunbar High School. He attended Alabama State University, and then moved to Massachusetts. In 1988, he co-founded the Dark Room Collective in Cambridge, Massachusetts, an organization that celebrated and gave greater visibility to emerging and established writers of color.Academy of American Poets > A Brief Guide to the Dark Room Collective He was the leader and a founding member of the band Heroes are Gang Leaders. Ellis received his M.F.A. from Brown University in 1995.
Career Ellis was known in the poetry community as a literary activist and innovator,Bios of 2005 Whiting Writer's Award Recipients whose poems "resist limitations and rigorously embrace wholeness."AGNI Online > Notes Toward a New Duty Now for the Future: An Interview with Thomas Sayers Ellis > by Kelsea Habecker Smith His poems have appeared in magazines such as AGNIAGNI Online > Author Bibliography: Thomas Sayers Ellis Callaloo, Grand Street, Harvard Review, Tin House, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, and anthologized in The Best American Poetry (1997, 2001, and 2010) and in Take Three: AGNI New Poets Series (Graywolf Press, 1996), an anthology series featuring the work of three emerging poets in each volume. He has received fellowships and grants from the Fine Arts Work Center, the Ohio Arts Council, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Yaddo, and the MacDowell Colony.Graywolf Press Website > Author Page: Thomas Sayers Ellis
Ellis was a contributing editor to Callaloo. He compiled and edited Quotes Community: Notes for Black Poets (University of Michigan Press, Poets on Poetry Series).BlueFlower Arts > Author's Booking Agent > Author Page
His first full-length collection, The Maverick Room, was published by Graywolf Press and won the John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares.Ploughshares > Authors & Articles > Postscripts: Zacharis Award Winner Thomas Sayers Ellis > by Don Lee Winter 2006 -07 Issue
The book takes as its subject the social, geographical and historical neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., bringing different tones of voice to bear on the various quadrants of the city.Bios of 2005 Whiting Writer's Award Recipients
He was also the author of a chapbook, The Genuine Negro Hero (Kent State University Press, 2001), and the chaplet Song On (Wintered Press 2005).Wintered Press Blog: Excerpt from Song On > By Thomas Sayers Ellis
Ellis taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop until 2016, when he left after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
Personal life and death Ellis had a son.
On July 17, 2025, Ellis died at his home in St. Petersburg, Florida, after an undisclosed respiratory illnesses. He was 61.
Awards 2005: Whiting Award 2006: John C. Zacharis First Book Award 2015: Guggenheim Fellowships for Poetry
Works The corny toys. Arrowsmith Press. 2018. .
Anthologies
References
External links
BlueFlower Arts > Author's Booking Agent > Author Page Ploughshares > Authors & Articles > Postscripts: Zacharis Award Winner Thomas Sayers Ellis > by Don Lee Winter 2006 -07 Issue Publishers Weekly: 'Identity Repair Poet: PW Talks with Thomas Sayers Ellis' (2010) Audio: MoMA: Multimedia: Thomas Sayers Ellis: The New Perform-A-Form (2008) Poetry Foundation > Poet > Thomas Sayers Ellis Audio: WAMU - 88.5 FM - American University Radio > Interview with Thomas Sayers Ellis > Sept. 21, 2004 Audio Interview: WCPN Radio (NPR) > Thomas Sayers Ellis Poets & Writers News & Trends > Q&A: Eady Sees Cave Canem Success > By Thomas Sayers Ellis > Nov/Dec 2006