Ennis grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio as the sixth of ten children. After majoring in theater at The University of Cincinnati, he began his first professional life as an actor/singer who toured, and performed in regional theaters across America; embarking on his second, he completed his BA at Empire State College, where he was a Richard Porter Leach Fellow. Soon after he completed his MFA studies in creative writing at the New School; his work there won him a National Arts Club’s Literary Scholarship in Nonfiction

Recently, Ennis was named Ploughshares Literary Journal’s 2025 Emerging Writer in Nonfiction for his essay, “Happy New Year” (Winter 2025-2026, Vol. 51, No. 4).

His nonfiction piece, The Super with the Toy Face was published in the anthology New York: Lost and Found (WW Norton, Thomas Beller, editor); his memoir piece, The Rapunzel Effect was recognized as an outstanding work of nonfiction by In Our Own Write.  Other publications include: Electric Literature, The New York Times (Modern Love’s Tiny Love Stories), Creative Nonfiction Magazine (essay: “Still Standing,” Issue 53), Boys in the City (Bruno Gmünder Verlag GMBH, publishers), the literary journal Ganymede, plus dance criticism in Attitude: The Dancer’s Magazine. Residencies include Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, as well as being named a Lambda Literary Foundation Fellow in Nonfiction.

For his volunteer work with LIFEBEAT/Musicians Against AIDS, Ennis was the featured subject on PBS’s In the Life.

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Publications