Elyssa East

Biography

Elyssa East received her B.A. in art history from Reed College and her M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where she was the recipient of three prestigious fellowships: the Susan G. Hertog Research Assistantship, a Departmental Research Assistantship, and a Writing Division Merit Fellowship. Her Master’s thesis—a draft of this manuscript—won an M.F.A. Faculty Selects award. Elyssa has received additional awards and fellowships from the Ragdale, Jerome, and Ludwig Vogelstein Foundations; the University of Connecticut; and the Phillips Library.

Elyssa’s writing has been published in various New England regional magazines as well as The Brooklyn Rail, Guernica, and Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, and is forthcoming in The New York Times. A scene from Elyssa’s opera libretto, Mr. Hawthorne’s Engagement, was performed with singers from the Met Opera as part of American Opera Project’s Composers and the Voice series. Elyssa created Columbia University’s Artists’ Resource Center and ran KGB Bar’s Columbia University Faculty Selects Reading Series for three years. Additionally she has worked as a nonfiction reviews editor at Publisher’s Weekly; the Managing Director of the Maine Summer Dramatic Institute and Executive Producer of Shakespeare in Deering Oaks Park in Portland, Maine; an archaeologist’s assistant; and a dump-truck driver. A native of Georgia, Elyssa currently resides in New York City.