Elizabeth Poliner is the author of As Close to Us as Breathing, a novel (winner of the 2017 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in Fiction, finalist for both the Ribalow Prize for Jewish Fiction and the Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award for Fiction, and an Amazon Best Book of 2016); Mutual Life & Casualty, a novel-in-stories; What You Know in Your Hands, a poetry collection; and Sudden Fog, a poetry chapbook. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared widely in literary journals including The Kenyon Review, The Sun, The Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Colorado Review. She is a recipient of seven individual artist grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, fiction fellowships to the Wesleyan and Sewanee writers’ conferences, and artist residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, the Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has taught creative writing extensively, for many years in the MFA and undergraduate programs at Hollins University, as well as at American University, George Washington University, and The Writer’s Center.
Elizabeth Poliner’s recent works have appeared in the following web reprints and radio spots:
- “The Right to Privacy”, WordCity Lit, September 2021
- “Walking at Night”, The Sun Magazine, February 2019
- “Blue” (poem), The Writer’s Almanac, read by Garrison Keillor, January 28, 2016
- “Unfinished Symphony” (story), Weekend Reads: Story of the Week,Kenyon Review, August 2015
- “Students Painting in the Community Garden on Newark Street”, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, October 2009
- “Thinking About Six Bach Sonatas for Flute and Piano While Vacationing in Maine”, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Winter 2004
Elizabeth Poliner has also authored these recent essays:
- “Endings that Change Everything: On Alice Munro’s Literary Innovations” Literary Hub, July 2021
- “The Shape of His Stories: In Praise of Edward P. Jones” Literary Hub, October 2020
- “How Mapping Alice Munro’s Stories Helped Me as a Writer” (essay), Literary Hub (lithub.com), April 2016
- “I Feel Like I Can Breathe Here” (essay), Omnivoracious: The Amazon Book Review, March 2016