Meet Ellen Blum Barish

We were lucky to catch up with Ellen Blum Barish recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ellen, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
Thank you for the invitation as I share this belief in purposeful work.

I believe my purpose found me when I became open to the signs.

Even by the end of college, I didn’t know what my professional life would look like. I majored in communications and minored in English and Philosophy but didn’t know how these might translate into a career until I stumbled into a job as a research editor for a travel guide series. This led to a life in publishing that included positions as editor, proofreader, photographer, graphic designer, publisher, reporter and author. So, I knew that my life would be devoted to words.

But it was a story from my childhood that stalked me which when I finally embraced it as a writing project helped me see what I was meant to do. After my memoir, Seven Springs, was published, writers and people who wanted to write challenging stories from their lives reached out to me for manuscript review or developmental editing – for encouragement to sit down and write.

That’s when I became a writing coach specializing in helping people bring transformation and insight to the page in an artful way.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am an author, essayist, and teacher in the field of creative nonfiction. My work explores themes of personal identity, spirituality, and the human experience through the lens of one’s own life and observations. I believe that storytelling, memoir and the personal essay are powerful mediums for expression and connection and personal healing.

My work, which has been called deep, insightful and lyrical, has been published in various literary magazines and anthologies.
In 2021, my memoir, “Seven Springs” was published by Shanti Arts that details my journey of breaking the silence around a childhood trauma.

I teach writing workshops and mentor writers privately who are working on memoir, essay collections or family histories. I never work with two writers in the same way as I recognize that each writer has his or her own unique process.

In addition to my writing, I am actively involved in the literary community as a storyteller as well as other events that celebrate and promote the art of the personal essay and creative nonfiction. I was recently invited to become a member of the my village’s Fine Arts Commission.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Whether you think of yourself as a creative or not, people respond best to authenticity. To be authentic in whatever you are doing, I look to the three Vs – visibility, vulnerability and voice.

We all need to feel visible in the world in some way. We all want to leave a unique mark, to be seen. It answers the question, who are you and what do you leave behind?

When a person shows his or her true self, it can reverberate. Being open and vulnerable, whether it’s on the page or in your daily life, has the ability to touch or move others and allows you to make meaning from your life.

And finally, to cultivate a voice and be heard is powerful for the speaker/writer as well as the listener. When we hear someone speaking his/her truth in an articulate way, it can move us to do the same.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I am always open to working with people who are passionate about and committed to writing a story from their life for the page, legacy or personal discovery.

I make time to support writers who committed to this process in my professional as well as my personal life as I believe that it’s the powerful stories from our lives that can make change in the world.

To write a powerful story from your life, you need a witness and a partner. If you are working on or would like to start writing a story from your life from which you would like to make meaning or art, reach out!

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Headshot by Ellen Lindner EBB teaching photo by Story Jam EBB at work by Marianne Mitchell

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