author photo of Eleanor Henderson in a green jacket

Eleanor Henderson

Professor, Writing
School: School of Humanities and Sciences
Phone: 607-274-3324
Office: Smiddy 402
Specialty: Fiction Writing

Eleanor Henderson grew up in Florida and has taught in the Department of Writing since 2010. Her latest book is the memoir Everything I Have Is Yours: A Marriage (Flatiron, 2021), which was selected for the New York Times Group Text Book Club and named a New York Times Notable Book. She is also the author of the novels The Twelve-Mile Straight (Ecco, 2017) and Ten Thousand Saints (Ecco, 2011), which was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2011 by The New York Times, was a finalist for the Award for First Fiction from The Los Angeles Times, and was adapted into a movie starring Ethan Hawke.

Eleanor’s stories and essays have appeared in publications including Agni, Ninth Letter, LitHub, Salon, The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, All Things Considered, Poets & Writers, The Virginia Quarterly ReviewThe Best American Short Stories, and Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games. With the novelist Anna Solomon she is also co-editor of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today's Best Women Writers (FSG, 2014). She has taught at James Madison University, Syracuse University, the Colgate Writers Conference, and the Chautauqua Institution.

Spring 2024 Office Hours
Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:15 to 10:45 AM and by appointment 

Spring 2024 Courses

  • WRTG 30100: Memoir
  • WRTG 41000: Senior Project

Degrees

  • M.F.A. Fiction, University of Virginia, 2005
  • B.A. American Literature/Creative Writing, Middlebury College, 2001

Selected Publications

Books

Reviews + Essays

Selected Awards

  • New York Times Notable Book, 2021
  • Robert Ryan Professorship in the Humanities, 2019
  • Summer Grants for Faculty Research, Ithaca College, 2019, 2011
  • Research Fellowship, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University, 2016
  • Faculty Excellence Award, Ithaca College Center for Faculty Excellence, 2011-2012
  • Finalist for the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, Los Angeles Times, 2011
  • 10 Best Books of the Year, New York Times, 2011

Selected Past Courses

  • Vegan Studies (Ithaca Seminar)
  • Writing the Other (Senior Seminar)
  • Narratives of Mental Illness (Ithaca Seminar)
  • Distance + Discourse (Senior Seminar)
  • The Art of Time (Senior Seminar)
  • Short Stories on the Screen (Ithaca Seminar)
  • Writing Historical Fiction
  • Writing the Novella

Appointments

Website

eleanor-henderson.com