Ella Ray is a writer, editor, and full-spectrum doula based in Portland, Oregon. Ray’s multi-passionate practice is indebted to a cosmology of radical black women cultural workers who were, and continue to be, unwavering in their commitments to craft and liberation.

They were the Associate Editor of Variable West from 2023–2026, where Ray aided the development of an editorial program that embraces substantive and accessible arts criticism from non-traditional writers. 

Through practices of public scholarship, community librarianship, and printmaking, Ray’s independent work seeks to carve out space for everyday people to cultivate literacy and engage in meaningful cultural criticism.