Elaine Weiss is a journalist and author whose writing has been recognized with prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists, her by-line has appeared in many national publications.

She is the author of three books of narrative history: The highly-acclaimed narrative history The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote — hailed as a “riveting, nail-biting political thriller” with powerful parallels to today’s political environment. The Woman’s Hour was a GoodReads Readers’ Choice Award winner, short-listed for the 2019 Chautauqua Prize, and received the American Bar Association’s highest honor, the 2019 Silver Gavel Award.

Her first book, Fruits of Victory: The Woman’s Land Army in the Great War was excerpted in Smithsonian Magazine and featured on C-Span and public radio stations nationwide.

Her newest book, Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools that Built the Civil Rights Movement, carries readers into the heart of the 20th c. civil rights and voting rights struggle, and has won praise as a “powerful, intimate, and enlightening book” with “elegant writing, masterful storytelling, and prodigious research.”

Elaine is a popular public speaker and frequent media commentator, and was an historical advisor for the Broadway musical SUFFS. She lives in Baltimore with her husband, and they have two grown children. When not at her desk, she can be found paddling her little purple kayak on the Chesapeake Bay.