Elliott D. Woods

Biography

Elliott D. Woods is a contributing editor to VQR. His VQR-sponsored website Assignment Afghanistan received the 2011 Digital National Magazine Award for Multimedia Package. His essay “Digging Out,” from the Fall 2010 issue, was nominated for a 2011 National Magazine Award in Reporting. His essay “Hope’s Coffin,” from the Summer 2009 issue, received a citation for the Madeline Dane Ross Award from the Overseas Press Club. His other essays and photographs have appeared in Outside Magazine, Businessweek, Granta, Men’s Journal, and Mother Jones.

http://www.elliottwoods.com/

See Work

REPORTING / Summer 2016

The Fight for Chinko

By Elliott D. Woods

In the ungoverned wilds of the Central African Republic, a group of young conservationists uses every resource it can muster—from technology to armed confrontation—to protect a vital habitat.

Lieutenant Ponce Pilate Mbenga, a Central African Army officer with the Chinko Project, looks on as one of the rangers examines a leopard skin confiscated from Mbororo poachers during a camp raid.
REPORTING / Fall 2013

Line in the Sand

By Elliott D. Woods

Now that Senate Democrats have defeated legislation that would have approved construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, Republicans are promising to push the project through when they take control of the Senate next year. But...
REPORTING / Summer 2012

The Last Happy Skull

By Elliott D. Woods

In remote northwest Myanmar, the traditional home to the headhunting Naga tribes, skulls are harder and harder to find.

Legend has it that the skull hanging in the hut behind the chief of Pansar’s house once belonged to a Koki warrior. Despite its unimpressive setting, the chief said that the skull still has the power to cause trouble for anyone who disrespects it. Photo by Elliott D. Woods.
REPORTING / Winter 2012

The Faces of Tahrir Square

By Elliott D. Woods

Egyptian protests began on January 25, 2011, spurred in part by the success of protests in Tunisia and brought to a boil by a massive social media campaign. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were so effective in getting Egyptians out onto the...

A boy rests under the treads of an Egyptian army tank in Tahrir Square, in downtown Cairo. Protesters gathered there beginning on January 25, 2011, calling for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled the country unopposed since 1981
ESSAYS / Fall 2011

All That Remains

By Elliott D. Woods

One Afghan Refugee’s Quest to Recover the Past.

Sherifullah, eleven, and Abdel Basit, eight, stand on one of the upper floors of the Russian Palace of Culture, which was heavily shelled during the mujahidin civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal. Until recently, the bombed out buildings sheltered homeless Afghans and heroin addicts. Efforts by the Russian government to rehabilitate the cultural center are underway.
ESSAYS / Spring 2011

Garbage City

By Elliott D. Woods ,  Photography by Elliott D. Woods

Perched atop the Moqattam Cliffs, where Pharaonic slaves cut limestone for the pyramids, the Monastery of Saint Simon and its accompanying cathedral boast a commanding view of Cairo. On a smog free day, if you peek around the cliffs to the...

The view of Manshiet Nasser's garbage village and the Cairo skyline from the Moqattam Cliffs, the site of the Coptic Christian Cathedral of Saint Simon the Tanner.
ESSAYS / Spring 2011

Garbage City

By Elliott D. Woods ,  Photography by Elliott D. Woods

Perched atop the Moqattam Cliffs, where Pharaonic slaves cut limestone for the pyramids, the Monastery of Saint Simon and its accompanying cathedral boast a commanding view of Cairo. On a smog free day, if you peek around the cliffs to the...

The view of Manshiet Nasser's garbage village and the Cairo skyline from the Moqattam Cliffs, the site of the Coptic Christian Cathedral of Saint Simon the Tanner.
REPORTING

Cairo Journal: February 4

By Elliott D. Woods

A pair of Egyptian tanks had the entrance to the Qasr El-Nil Bridge sealed off, but the mood was relaxed, and no one seemed to notice the arrival of a foreigner toting a camera bag.

REPORTING

Cairo Journal: February 4

By Elliott D. Woods

Elliott Woods reports from Cairo.

Winter 2011

A State of Emergency

By Elliott D. Woods ,  Photography by Gabriele Stabile