Emily Yellin is a reporter, author and producer, who is currently collaborating with Rev. James Lawson on his memoir, to be published in 2025.

She led a multimedia journalism project called, Striking Voices, centered around in-depth video interviews with some of the Memphis sanitation workers who went on strike in 1968, and their wives, sons and daughters.

She and the Striking Voices team produced a 10-part video series, based on those interviews, in partnership with TheRoot.com, that was posted during the first four months of 2018, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Memphis sanitation strike.

Emily is a longtime contributor to The New York Times, mostly writing about the South, race and women’s issues. She has also written for Time, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Smithsonian Magazine, and other publications. She is the author of two previous books: Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us (Simon & Schuster, 2009) and Our Mothers War (Simon & Schuster 2004).

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 masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University. She has lived in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and London, but now lives in Memphis.