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. She has received awards and fellowships from The Corporation of Yaddo; the Ragdale, Jerome, and Ludwig Vogelstein Foundations; the University of Connecticut; and the Phillips Library. This fall, Elyssa will teach in the undergraduate Creative Writing program at Purchase College.
Elyssa’s writing has been published in The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Kansas City Star, The Philadelphia Inquirer and other publications nationwide. A scene from her’s opera libretto, Mr. Hawthorne’s Engagement, was performed with 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. She has also worked as a baker, an archaeologist’s assistant, a ballet school dorm parent, a nonfiction reviews editor at Publisher’s Weekly, the Managing Director of the Maine Summer Dramatic Institute, and the Executive Producer of Shakespeare in Deering Oaks Park in Portland, Maine.
For much of Elyssa’s life she has lived on streets named for trees: Longwood Drive and Hickory Walk in Marietta, Georgia where she grew up; Oak St. in Telluride, Colorado; Alder St. in Portland, Oregon; and Pine St. in Portland, Maine. Elyssa currently resides in the Million Trees city, New York.
Interviews and articles about Elyssa and Dogtown
Select articles and book reviews by Elyssa
“A Moveable Fast” Elyssa's New York Times Thanksgiving Day Op-ed
New York Times Sunday Book Review of FINDING CHANDRA by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Scott Higham and Sari Horowitz
New York Times Sunday Book Review of THE POISONER'S HANDBOOK by Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum
Kansas City Star review of LONG FOR THIS WORLD by Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner
Kansas City Star review of CAKEWALK by Kate Moses
Photos by Melissa Heltzel
