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, two collections of essays, Peripheral Visions and Nightlights: Bedtime Stories for Parents in the Dark and an anthology, The Book of Eulogies,    Her first children's book, Serefina Under the Circumstances, was recently published by Greenwillow Press.  In 2002 a novella Giovanni’s Light was published at Christmas. She has recently completed a journal-memoir, Trapping Butterflies From A Wing Chair:  How Keeping A Journal Can Save Your life, and is currently at work on a documentary-book project about the young civil rights lawyers in the Justice Department, where she worked in the l960's. 

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 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.

In l993, she co-founded the Woodstock Project on Forgiveness, a consortium of scholars and activists at Georgetown University.  In l994, she invited women from black and white churches in the town of Ashland, Virginia  to become part of a monthly supper group.  From that came 'Bridge Builders" - a series of study circles where members from the black and white community met  to discuss the effects of racism in their lives.

In l999 she co-founded and was elected the first president of the Ashland Hanover Citizens for Responsible Growth which was established to promote sound growth policies and healthy standards for community life.   

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