Eileen Cunniffe writes mostly nonfiction and often explores identity and experience through the lenses of travel, family, and work. Occasionally, her stories present themselves as prose poems.

Eileen has undergraduate degrees in English and Honors from Villanova University and a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Organizational Dynamics. Her career has included roles in healthcare communication, public affairs, the nonprofit arts sector, and higher education—all of which helped her find her voice as a writer. Her earliest essays were first-person travel narratives. From 2013-2021, she was a regular contributor to Nonprofit Quarterly, covering arts and culture. Her writing has appeared in literary journals and anthologies. Four of her essays have been recognized with Travelers’ Tales Solas Awards and another received the Emrys Journal 2013 Linda Julian Creative Nonfiction Award.

Eileen was an active participant in Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio for 5 years and has participated in writing conferences and online workshops through a number of institutions, including Brown University, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Creative Nonfiction, Philadelphia Stories, Stanford University, the University of New Mexico, and Hippocampus Magazine‘s Hippocamp.

Pronouns: she/her/hers
Verb: essay