Who’s Elly?

Elly Lonon is an author and illustrator living in New Jersey. Born and raised in North Carolina on a steady diet of Hot Pockets and the musical influences of her older brothers, she started DJing at the local college radio station before she could drive. Later while attending that same college (because who gives up a coveted Friday night time slot for desired curriculums?) she and her fellow classmates in Internet 101 built and launched the school’s first website. Clip art still gives her the hives.

“Elly Lonon’s quick-witted humor is just the salve we need for these tumultuous political times.” - Christopher Monks, Managing Editor of McSweeney's Internet Tendency and Author of The Ultimate Game Guide to Your Life

"Goofy grace and charismatic class." - David Henry Sterry, Author of Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent

Despite majoring in accounting, she moved to Manhattan for graduate school and to pursue a career in the music business. When she took over the Online Marketing Department at a heavy metal company, she once sold a campaign to a company reissuing Survivor records just so that she could score Billy Ocean’s entire catalog for her own enjoyment. Tired of trying to spell Sepultura, she left both the industry and NYC, opting to work for a not-for-profit and moving to the suburbs of Jersey where living near a superfund site promptly gave her cancer. Probably. Well she definitely had Lymphoma, though the actual cause of the cancer was less definite.

When her oncologist suggested learning a new language to help recover from chemo brain, Elly chose to learn HTML which led to the creation of her blog, BugginWord.com, in April 2009. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post, the New York Times, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Real Simple, O Magazine, and a shocking number of now-defunct sites. The graphic novel Amongst the Liberal Elite: The Road Trip Exploring Societal Inequities Solidified by Trump her first book (with illustrator Joan Reilly), is currently in its second printing. Ed Park from his review in the New York Times said, “Anyone who’s ever thought the title might apply to them will laugh, while also resolving not to be such a cliché in the future.”

When she isn’t working or juggling her progeny, she enjoys torturing small stringed instruments.

Elly really, really hates writing in the third person. She does, however, really like hearing from people - especially people capable of preparing their own meals. So drop her an email sometime. Or now. Now is good, too.