Emily Yellin

Journalist, author, and producer Emily Yellin founded and is currently leading a non-profit, multi-media, journalism project called Striking Voices, focused on the lives and families of the Memphis sanitation workers who went on strike in 1968 for better working conditions. She co-produced a 10-part, video series in 2018 with The Root, called 1,300 Men: Memphis Strike ’68. In addition, Emily has written two books, published by Simon & Schuster: Our Mothers’ War — American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II, and Your Call Is Not That Important to Us — Customer Service and What It Reveals About Our World and Our Lives.

During more than 20 years reporting on the South as a contributor to The New York Times, Emily has written features, op-eds, and news stories about race, history, music, social justice, gender, violence, poverty, and the environment. She also has written features, book reviews and editorials for Time, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Smithsonian Magazine, and other publications.

Born in White Plains, New York, Emily grew up in Memphis. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, with a degree in English literature, and received a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Emily has lived in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and London, but now lives in Memphis.