Ciera Horton McElroy
Ciera McElroy has published work in AGNI, The Chattahoochee Review, The Crab Orchard Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Bridge Eight, Little Fiction, Lumina, and Flash Fiction Magazine among others. Her journalistic publication credits include The Washington Post, WORLD Magazine and The World and Everything In It radio, Wheaton Magazine. She is represented by Folio Literary Management, and her debut novel is forthcoming from Blair Publishing in February 2023.
Diane Chamberlain, a New York Times Bestselling Author of The Last House on the Street, wrote, “ATOMIC FAMILY is a wholly original, gripping, and stunningly crafted story of one family’s attempt to cope with the fears and uncertainty of the nuclear age. Ciera Horton McElroy captures the fragility of a young boy and his parents as they struggle with their own personal demons in the face of potential catastrophe. Atomic Family is as lyrical and assured as it is devastating.”
On her website, McElroy shared, “Though ATOMIC FAMILY is a work of fiction, the story is heavily inspired by real events and people. My grandfather—who died in 1976, nearly twenty years before I was born—was a chief agronomist, responsible for disposing nuclear waste at the Savannah River Plant (SRP). At the time, this meant burying irradiated materials in the ground. This also meant his work was top secret: his wife and son knew nothing about his other life. These are just some of the resources that helped me write the novel.”
McElroy graduated from Wheaton College with her B.A.in English Writing and is a graduate of the Creative Writing M.F.A. program at the University of Central Florida. She has worked as a communications consultant for Sony Pictures, a journalist on Capitol Hill, a writing instructor, a photographer and painter, and a fiction writer, among other ventures. She served as the Communications Director on the faith campaign for the Academy Award-nominated “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”(2019) and “Paul, Apostle of Christ” (2017). McElroy has worked as Editor-in-Chief at Kodon literary magazine and The Wheaton Record newspaper. In October 2021, McElroy appeared on the Rare Birds podcast to discuss her current projects, business, and more.
McElroy was born and raised in Orlando, Florida, and currently runs her own communications consulting business, Clover and Bee, LLC. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband and son.
Updated July 2022