Samantha Ellis is a British playwright and nonfiction writer. Her books include Chopping Onions on my Heart: on losing and preserving culture (Chatto & Windus, 2025; and will be published in the US by Pegasus Books under the title Always Carry Salt in 2026), a memoir of her mother tongue, the language of the Jews of Iraq, going extinct, and about what we keep and save and what we let go of.
Her previous books are How to be a Heroine (Chatto & Windus / Vintage) and Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life (Chatto & Windus). Her rom com play How to Date a Feminist (Nick Hern Books) has been produced all over the world. Her other plays include Cling to me Like Ivy and I’m Still Burning (both Nick Hern Books). The daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees, she lives in London.
