Elaine Terranova


Elaine Terranova is an American poet.

Life

She grew up in Philadelphia, the daughter of Nathan and Sadie Goldstein. She remained in her home town gaining her education at Temple University where she graduated in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in English. She also married her first husband Philip Terranova that same year. Twelve years later in 1973, she worked as a manuscript editor for J. B. Lippincott & Co. While working there, she attended Vermont's Goddard College culminating in earning her master's degree in 1977. Her career shifted from editing to education and she began teaching English and creative writing at her alma mater Temple University until 1987, when she began teaching as a reading and writing specialist at the Community College of Philadelphia.
She developed a passion for writing poetry and began publishing her works while continuing to teach. Her poems have appeared in various publications including The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Ploughshares.
Elaine has led workshops at the 1991 Rutgers University Writers Conference, and the 1992 Writers’ Center at the Chautauqua Institution. In 1996, she was appointed the Margaret Banister writer-in-residence at Sweet Briar College.
In 2001, “The Choice,” a selection from Damages, appeared throughout Philadelphia as a part of the Poetry Society’s Poetry in Motion. “The River Bathers,” from Damages, was featured on illustrated posters by the Public Poetry Project.
On November 8, 2012, University of Pennsylvania's Kelly Writers House inaugurated the Eva and Leo Sussman Poetry Program with poetry readings by featured guest writers and instructors, Elaine Terranova, Nathalie Anderson, and Joan Hutton Landis. Here, Elaine reads from her 2012 book, Dames Rocket.
She lives in Philadelphia.

Awards

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