Phyllis Theroux

Phyllis Theroux is an essayist, columnist, teacher and author.  Born in San Francisco, California, she is the critically acclaimed author of a memoir, California and Other States of Grace, (Morrow) ttwo collections of essays, Peripheral Visions (Morrow) and Nightlights: Bedtime Stories for Parents in the Dark  (Scribner) an anthology, The Book of Eulogies (Scribner), a children's book, Serefina Under the Circumstances(Greenwillow Press ) a novella Giovanni’s Light(Scribner0 and a memoir, The Journal Keeper (Grove Atlantic)  Her latest book, The Good Bishop,(Orbis Books)  is a biography of a controversial Catholic prelate, Walter F. Sullivan, and will be published in the Spring of 2013.

A contributing essayist on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer from 1992 - 1996,  her columns, op-ed pieces, reviews and feature stories have  appeared in various newspapers  including The New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and International Herald Tribune.  In the l980's, she was a montly columnist for Parents Magazine .  In the l990's she wrote a monthly column for House Beautiful.  Her essays continue to be anthologized in numerous collections. 

Following the publication of The Book of Eulogies, in l997 she  created  "The Great American Portraits Program" which was sponsored by the Library of Congress and toured various cities in the United States. She  has been a guest professor and lecturer at  numerous  forums, colleges and universities.   

The founder of  Nightwriters, which  conducts writing and creativity  seminars in the United States and abroad, she occasionally conducts one-on-one editorial seminars with individual writers who  come to spend time working in her writer's cottage in Ashland, Virginia.

A community activist and educator, in 1989, she formed a non-profit organization ("Winners in Grade School") to attract grants and support an inner-city Washington, D. C. elementary school where she taught creative writing to fifth graders between 1989 - 1993.  During that time she created a consortium of private schools to be partners in education with the school.

A graduate of Manhattanville College, with a B.A. in Philosophy, she has three grown children and lives  with her husband, Ragan Phillips in Ashland, Virginia.