Ellen Estilai received her B.A. in Art from the University of California, Davis, and her M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Tehran. A former arts administrator, she was executive director of the Riverside Arts Council and the Arts Council for San Bernardino County and educational services manager of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. She has taught English language, literature and writing at universities in Iran and California. Her essay “Front Yard Fruit,” originally published in Alimentum: The Literature of Food, is included in New California Writing 2011 (Heyday) and was selected as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2011. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she has published poetry and essays in several journals and anthologies, including Phantom Seed; Broad!; Snapdragon: A Journal of Art and Healing; Ink & Letters; Heron Tree; (In)Visible Memoirs, Vol. 2.; Writing from Inlandia; and HOME: Tall Grass Writers Guild Anthology. Ellen is a founding board member and past-president of the Inlandia Institute, a literary center in Riverside, California.
Send questions, comments and corrections to info@creativewritingmfa.info.
Disclaimer: No endorsement of these ratings should be implied by the writers and writing programs listed on this site, or by the editors and publishers of Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology.