Ellen Malphrus, PhD

My name is Dr. Ellen Malphrus. I am a Professor of English and Writer in Residence here at USCB. In 2022, I was the university's Professor of the Year. I teach a wide variety of courses, from first-year English to Creative Writing Workshops to Southern Literature to Postmodernism. 

My BA, MFA, and PhD were earned at the University of South Carolina. James Dickey, U.S. Poet Laureate and author of Deliverance, was my Graduate Director for my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. More recently, I was mentored by Pat Conroy, author of numerous acclaimed books including The Prince of Tides. Conroy wrote the foreword to my novel Untying the Moon.  

My poetry, fiction, essays, creative nonfiction, and academic research has been published in literary journals, scholarly journals, anthologies, and books including Poetry South, Haight Ashbury Review, Natural Bridge, James Dickey Review, Southern Literary Journal, William & Mary Review, Blue Mountain Review, Fall Lines, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Weber—the Contemporary West, Literature: Reading and Writing with Critical Strategies, and Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy.   

In my role as USCB’s Writer in Residence, I teach workshops in poetry and fiction as well as “Creative Writing Across the Curriculum,” a course designed to introduce students of all majors to the possibilities of creative writing. I also serve as Faculty Advisor to the Society of Creative Writers, which biannually publishes The Pen—USCB’s four-time national award-winning journal of creative writing and art. I offer a publishing practicum for creative writing students interested in serving on the editorial staff of The Pen and have directed 34 senior theses for USCB creative writing concentration students.  

I am Deputy Director of the annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival held in Beaufort County each November. As a member of the SC Humanities Speaker’s Bureau, I often serve as an invited presenter and panelist.