Helen Ellis

Helen Ellis is an American novelist. She has authored two published novels, along with a short story collection and a forthcoming collection of essays. She is a poker player who competes on the national tournament circuit. Raised in Alabama, she lives with her husband in New York City.

Her first novel, Eating the Cheshire Cat (Scribner: 2001), is a dark comedy written in Southern Gothic fiction style. It tells the story of three girls raised in the South, and the odd, sometimes macabre tribulations they endure.

The Turning: What Curiosity Kills (Powell's Books: 2010), her second novel, is a "teen vampire" story about a southern 16-year-old girl adopted into a wealthy New York City family and centers on shape-shifting, teen romance, and the supernatural.

Her third publication, American Housewife (Doubleday: 2016), is "a sharp, funny, delightfully unhinged collection of stories set in the dark world of domesticity".

A collection of essays entitled Southern Lady Code was published in April 2019.