Allyn West (she/her) is a writer, editor, teacher, digital producer, media strategist and communications manager.

I grew up in rural Indiana and earned a B.S. in journalism at Ball State University, then an M.F.A. in poetry at New Mexico State University and a Ph.D. in creative nonfiction and literature at the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston.

My first byline was for Swamplot, the popular architecture and real estate blog. I directed communications for Rice Design Alliance at Rice University and wrote for Cite before moving to the Houston Chronicle. There, I ran the award-winning “vertical,” Gray Matters, helped co-host Looped In, a podcast about the city, and served on the editorial board, writing editorials and editing the opinion section. I’ve written and talked about everything from bus stops to naps to dirty power plants in and on the Cimarron Review, Houstonia, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Glasstire, Houston Matters, Los Angeles Review of Books, Texas Observer, Starters, Oxford American, and The Architect’s Newspaper.

Now, I work as the senior communications manager for advocacy storytelling at Environmental Defense Fund and EDF Action and write a weekly newsletter, The Work.

Please email me or find me on social media.