Elizabeth Donald (born 1975) is an American author and journalist, best known for writing horror and science fiction, including the Nocturnal Urges vampire mystery series and Blackfire zombie series.
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Life and career
Elizabeth Donald was born in Merced, California in 1975, the older of two children to Dr. Ralph Donald, a professor of mass communications retired from SIUE, and Patrice Stribling Nelson, a classical pianist. Donald attended Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Maryland and then Westview High School in Martin, Tennessee, graduating in 1993. She next attended the University of Memphis, initially studying theater, and then transferred to the University of Tennessee at Martin to study journalism, graduating with a bachelor's degree in mass communications. She later earned a masters degree in media studies and a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Her first novel, Nocturnal Urges, was published in 2004, launching the three-book vampire series. Since then, she has published many novels and novellas, as well as a number of short story publications in various magazines. She has won the Darrell Award for speculative fiction three times as well as the Mimi Zanger Award for fiction, and has been a finalist for other awards, including the Prism Award from Romance Writers of America, the Imadjinn Award, and the Knost Award. Her first screenplay was a finalist for the Imaginarium Film Festival Award.
She regularly appears at horror- and science fiction-themed conventions such as Archon, Dragoncon, MidSouthCon and Hypericon. In 2009, her novella titled "The Cold Ones" (Sam's Dot Publishing) sold out its first print run in 48 hours and launched the Blackfire series of novels and short stories. The protagonist of this novella was named after fellow author Sara M. Harvey.
She works as a freelance editor and writing coach, editing anthologies and novels for small-press publishers and working with beginning writers on fiction projects. In 2014, she launched a photography site, selling nature and art photography that has been licensed for book covers and other commercial purposes and has been featured in art shows and journals.
Elizabeth Donald was a full-time reporter at the Belleville News-Democrat newspaper in Illinois from 2000 until 2018. She has won multiple journalism awards, including the Southern Illinois Editorial Association and Illinois Press Association awards. She was vice president of the St. Louis Society of Professional Journalists for three years, and elected chapter president in 2015, and continues to serve. She has been a member of the national SPJ ethics commission since 2009, and was part of the team that rewrote the organization's code of ethics in 2014. In 2010, she was one of two initial recipients of the Terry Harper Memorial Fellowship from the national Society of Professional Journalists. She is a contributor to journalism trade magazines and guest lecturer on the subjects of journalism ethics and the changing nature of journalism in the 21st century.
Currently she teaches journalism, creative writing and English composition as an adjunct professor in the St. Louis region and has been active in advocacy for the First Amendment, both through her universities and as St. Louis SPJ president. She is a member of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, the Authors Guild and other national writing and advocacy organizations, including the Sigma Tau Delta honor society, for which she served as a chapter president in 2022-23. She continues to work as a freelance journalist for multiple regional and national publications, including the St. Louis Labor Tribune and McClatchy.
Her uncle, Michael Stribling, is a new-age musician. She is married to author Jim Gillentine and has one son, Ian Smith, from a previous marriage. She is a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church and resides in Edwardsville, Illinois.
Works
Blackfire Rising, 2025 novel, Falstaff Books
Yanaguana, October 2020, novella, appearing in the collection Foul Womb of Night by Crone Girls Press
Moonlight Sonata, 2017 collection, Dark Oak Press
Finalist for Imadjinn Awards, 2018
Nocturne Infernum, 2015 compendium of three novels, Seventh Star Press
Gethsemane, 2014 novella, Aardvark Productions
Dreadmire, 2013 novel, Inkstained Succubus Press
Re-released 2024 in an anniversary edition
Infinity, 2011 novella, Aardvark Productions
Blackfire, 2011, Sam's Dot Publishing
The Cold Ones, 2009, Sam's Dot Publishing
The Dreadmire Chronicles, 2009, Spellbinder Books
Abaddon, 2007, novel, Cerridwen Press
Winner of the 2008 Darrell Award
Nocturne, 2006 Cerridwen Press
Tandem, 2006, ebook, Ellora's Cave Publishing
Also appears in "Sultry Summer Fun," a print anthology published in May 2007
Setting Suns, 2006, anthology, New Babel Books