Lolis Eric Elie

Lolis Eric Elie is story editor of the HBO series Treme. Working with the award-winning director Dawn Logsdon, he co- produced and wrote the PBS documentary, Faubourg Treme: the Untold Story of Black New Orleans. His essay, "America's Greatest Hits," is included in Best African American Essays: 2009. He is a contributing writer for "The Oxford American."

From 1995 to 2009, he wrote a thrice-weekly column for the New Orleans' Times-Picayune. A recognized expert on New Orleans food and culture, he is the author of Smokestack Lightning: Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country and co-producer and writer of Smokestack Lightning: A Day in the Life of Barbecue, the documentary based on that book. He is editor of Cornbread Nation 2: The Best of Southern Food Writing.

His work has appeared in Gourmet, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Downbeat and The San Francisco Chronicle among other publications. His work is included in the anthologies Best Food Writing: 2008, Streetlights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience, and That's What I Like (About the South:
and Other New Southern Stories for the Nineties). A former commentator for CBS News Sunday Morning, he has also appeared often on National Public Radio programs.

He has an MA from the Columbia School of Journalism in New York and an MFA from the University of Virginia.