Partners in the arts: wordsmiths Ralph Ellis and Susan Puckett

Together, they have spilled vats of ink. Ralph Ellis and Susan Puckett are old-school newspaper people who made the transition to books. Ellis recently became a first-time novelist at age 72 when he published The Accident Report, following Ronald Truluck, a stoner reporter for a small-town paper trying to uncover a scandal in the spirit of Watergate. Before the novel, Ellis was a working journalist for about 50 years with newspapers around the Southeast, including 21 years at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and for news websites such as CNN. 

His wife, Puckett, was the AJC’s food editor for nearly two decades before writing her 2013 cookbook/travelogue, Eat Drink Delta, a Hungry Traveler’s Journey Through the Soul of the South, which the Georgia Center of the Book named one of 10 books every Georgian should read. Since then, she’s focused on helping others write their books, including Root to Leaf: A Southern Chef Cooks Through the Seasons with Miller Union’s Steven Satterfield; and Turnip Greens & Tortillas: A Mexican Chef Spices Up the Southern Kitchen with Taqueria del Sol’s Eddie Hernandez.

Puckett also partnered with the Egyptian-born social media star and Milton resident Suzy Karadsheh on The Mediterranean Dish: 120 Bold and Healthy Recipes You’ll Make on Repeat, which became a 2022 New York Times bestseller, and is now immersed in her tenth collaboration to be revealed in March 2026. 

The two writers took a moment from their busy schedules to share a glimpse of their successful partnership. 

ArtsATL: How did you two meet and what was your first impression of each other?  

Puckett: I first became vaguely aware of Ralph nearly four decades ago when we both worked at The Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. He was on the night news desk, and I was on the other side of the building in the features department. He was married with young kids; I had a group of single friends I hung out with. We both got hired at the AJC within a month of each other in 1990, but, again, our paths rarely crossed. Then, in 2006, we both showed up at a kickoff for the Jeff Galloway spring training program for marathons and half-marathons (the run-walk method to encourage slowpokes like myself), which I had gotten into after going through a divorce. He said he had done some triathlons and wanted to pick up his running pace. We began corresponding by email about our training techniques, dropping personal tidbits here and there, and eventually he asked me out to lunch. A mutual friend had confirmed his single status, so I said yes.  

Ellis: At the Galloway running event, Susan was hawking a cookbook based on an AJC column she’d co-written with Jeanne Besser, The 5:30 Challenge. We chatted afterward, and I learned she’d finished several marathons. A running writer with good looks! I’d never written a book or attempted a marathon. But she was impressed that I’d completed several sprint triathlons, and that put us on somewhat equal ground athletically. I suggested Moe’s Southwest Grill for our lunch date.  She instead led me to a little French restaurant near the AJC building on Marietta Street. I then understood that if this relationship was to go anywhere, I’d have to raise my restaurant game.  

ArtsATL: How did you know you wanted to get to know this other person better? 

Puckett: That first time we met for lunch, he greeted me with that characteristic full-face smile that radiated positivity and instantly put me at ease. We swapped stories of working in various newsrooms and growing up in small towns — me in Mississippi and him in Western North Carolina. We cracked each other up easily and often as we do to this day. He asked me out on a real date to the High Museum’s Friday night jazz series, and at that point I was officially smitten.  

Ellis: We had a long-distance relationship (me in Peachtree City, she in Decatur) for almost a year, though we spent most of the time in Decatur. I joined her weekend running group. Through Susan, my circle of friends widened to include not only our jogging buddies but also many talented writers such as Paul Hemphill, whose books I’d long admired. My cooking knowledge was also expanding way beyond scrambled eggs. I was thinking of proposing that we move in together when my roomie in Peachtree City kicked me out so his brother could move into the condo. That expedited the inevitable and I became a full-fledged Decaturite in 2007. Two years later, we got married in a lakeside ceremony in Avondale Estates.   

ArtsATL: To what degree do you help each other on writing projects? 

Ellis: I’m a sounding board when Susan talks out a project before she gets started, and I’ve proofed galleys on a couple of her books. I accompanied her on research trips for Eat Drink Delta, her 2013 book about food culture in the Mississippi Delta. I’m her guinea pig and dishwasher when she tests recipes, which happens about twice a week. The results are good 99.9% of the time, but, when they’re not, I deliver the verdict with grace and love. Baked cauliflower with cherries is one such experiment we’d both rather forget. The most enjoyable stretch of recipe testing occurred while she worked on Turnip Greens and Tortillas with Eddie Hernandez. If I had to choose a last meal, it would be Eddie’s fish tacos.  

Puckett:  Soon after Ralph moved to Decatur, he joined The Atlanta Writers Club and got into a writers’ critique group that met right across the street from us. When that one disbanded, he joined another one he exchanges pages with today. He bounces ideas off me as well, and I’m happy to share my two cents, but I am grateful he has a supportive network to turn to for more expert advice on plot and character development, just as I have my food writing buddies to turn to discuss recipe structure. I’ve been more helpful to him lately in writing pitch letters and other not-so-sexy aspects of the book-writing biz, I’m well versed in by now.    

ArtsATL: How do you work together in one place? Do you have separate offices? 

Ellis: Living in 1,150 square feet stuffed with cookbooks and greyhound toys, our options are limited. Susan has a desk but always works at the dining room table. I work on the sofa a few feet away, and the coffee table serves as my desk. It’s never a problem except when we’re both on the phone or Zoom at the same time. Then one of us relocates to either the patio or to Dancing Goats coffee shop.   

Puckett: At various points during the day, we walk our greyhound, Zena, around the neighborhood together or separately depending on how much mental space we need. It forces us to pull our heads out of our computers and get some fresh air and exercise. By the time Ralph came into the picture, I was on my third greyhound, Laney, and even though he once considered himself a cat person, he’s now as loyal to the breed as I am. Zena came into our lives during the pandemic. At the track she was known as “Zen” due to her chill demeanor, and she continues to be a calming presence.  

ArtsATL: What special qualities does your mate bring to his or her work? 

Ellis: Susan is a workhorse. I’m exhausted just to witness the hours she spends at the keyboard. Luckily for our marriage, she doesn’t resent the way I’ll watch TV sports while she pounds away at her laptop. She also has a bottomless well of empathy, making her an ideal collaborator for people working on their first books.  

Puckett: Ralph is a lean writer with a sharp BS detector. I often call upon him to help me cut flab when I get carried away on the verbiage. He is also a voracious reader, a keen listener and observer and open to all kinds of new experiences. These traits make him a great traveling companion. One of his best traits to me is his sense of humor. The thing I’m enjoying most as his tagalong to events to promote for The Accident Report is hearing the laughter that erupts when he reads an excerpt. I know that’s music to Ralph’s ears as well. 

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Candice Dyer’s work has appeared in magazines such as Atlanta, Garden & Gun, Men’s Journal and Country Living. She is the author of Street Singers, Soul Shakers, Rebels with a Cause: Music from Macon.