BIOGRAPHY
I'm a lifelong New Yorker, born in the Bronx. I grew up in both the Bronx and Rockaway Beach. I lived in Greenwich Village for eighteen years; now I live in Long Beach, in Nassau County. The beach and the Atlantic Ocean are right across the street from where I live. In the winter, the beach is a wonderful place to take my dog for a walk. (What can I say? Your priorities change as time goes on.)
Some info: My first book of poetry, "Armed Love," was published when I was 21. It was nominated for a National Book Award, but when it was reviewed in The New York Times, they suggested that it deserved to a "double X" rating. You have to remember that was 30 years ago, and young women weren't supposed to write books about sex, drugs and rock and roll, which was the subject of the poems in that volume. I spent a brief time as a minor cultural icon that year, which I was not prepared for. If you'd like to read about what being a 21-year-old literary sensation for about five minutes is like, click the link a couple of paragraphs below entitled "One Writer's Life (or, Call Me, Andy Warhol)."
Two years later I published a slightly more muted and melancholy book, "Come the Sweet By and By." It would be twenty-five years until I wrote another book of poetry, "The Mystery of Meteors," which was published by Sarabande Books in 2001; in 2005, Sarabande published my fourth poetry collection, "Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds, which was followed inl 2010 by another collection, "The Sensual World Re-Emerges." That was followed by my most recent collection of poetry, "Strange Life," published by Mayapple Press.
In the past decade, I've mostly concentrated on fiction, publishing several novels: "Janet Planet," "Radiomen," "The Stargazer's Embassy," and "Satellite Street." My most recent novel, "Watkins Glen," was published in 2021 by Mayapple Press. The books have featured cults, dogs, aliens, people who talk to the dead, a lake monster, and a Hello Kitty phone app that communicates with other worlds. What's not to love?
Hope you enjoy my work. Here's my e-mail address, so if you want to comment on anything I've written or ask a question, feel free to get in touch: elerman1@optonline.net.
Thanks for stopping by.