Photo credit: Courtney Armistead 

 Alissa Butterworth is a multi-award-winning author, certified book coach, editor, and educator who believes every writer has a story worth telling—and the right support can make all the difference in bringing it to life.

Her debut novel To Die Is Different Than Supposed has garnered multiple honors, including being named a 19th Annual National Indie Excellence Award Finalist in Literary Fiction, the 2025 Maxy Award Runner-Up in General Fiction and Nonfiction, a Readers' Choice Book Awards Gold Winner, the 2025 International Impact Book Award Winner in Contemporary Fiction, and the BookFest 2025 Second Place Award in Fiction—Literary—Contemporary. Published in February 2025 through River Grove Books, the novel explores the boundaries between the living and the dead, the remembered and the forgotten.

Alissa's shorter work—both prose and poetry—has appeared in publications including The Alumni Arts Review, Prolog, and The Reading Eagle. Her short story "Concerning the Death of Leighton Caulfield" was named an honorable mention in the 11th Annual NYC Midnight Short Story Contest, and she was a finalist in the 2019 NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Contest. Her story "The Carriage Held But Just Ourselves" debuted as part of the Satellite Collective's Telephone international art exhibit in 2021 and was published in the accompanying anthology by Crosstown Press. Most recently, her short story "Girls Who See Gods" premiered on October 10, 2025, as part of the next Telephone game. She is currently at work on her next novel and her first short story collection.

Beyond her own writing, Alissa has spent more than a decade helping other writers bring their stories into the world. She teaches a popular and longstanding Writer's Workshop, along with a rotating roster of writing and literature classes. As a certified Book Coach through Author Accelerator and an experienced developmental and managing editor, she works with fiction and memoir writers at every stage—from the first spark of an idea to a manuscript ready for publication. Her mission is simple: to help writers discover the clarity and confidence they need to tell their stories, always honoring their unique voice and vision.
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Alissa holds an MFA in fiction from Lesley University and a BA in creative writing and English literature from Franklin and Marshall College. She lives in the Mid-Atlantic region with her family, which includes a silly rescue hound named Scout and a boisterous preschooler who keeps life interesting.