Phyllis Theroux founded Nightwriters when her children were small and she couldn’t get much further than her own kitchen table to teach other writers what she knew. Because most of her students worked during the day, she called them “Nightwriters” and the name stuck. Since then, she has taken Nightwriters to California, Virginia and Italy among other places.

Her books include, California and Other States of Grace (Morrow), Night Lights: Bedtime Stories for Parents in the Dark and Peripheral Visions (Viking), an anthology, The Book of Eulogies, (Scribner) a novel, Giovanni’s Light, (Scribner) and a children’s book, Serefina Under the Circumstances (Greenwillow Press). She has been a regular columnist for the New York Times, Parents Magazine, and House Beautiful. From l992 - l995 she was an on-camera essayist for the Newshour with Jim Lehrer. She is currently working on a biography of her mother.

Born in San Francisco, she moved to Washington, D. C. in l964 where she started her family and writing career. The mother of three grown children, she now lives with her husband, Ragan Phillips, in Ashland, Virginia.