Zetta Elliott

Zetta Elliott earned her PhD in American Studies from NYU in 2003. Her poetry has been published in the Cave Canem anthology, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Check the Rhyme: an Anthology of Female Poets and Emcees, and Coloring Book: an Eclectic Anthology of Fiction and Poetry by Multicultural Writers. Her novella, Plastique, was excerpted in T Dot Griots: an Anthology of Toronto’s Black Storytellers, and her essays have appeared in Horn Book Magazine, The Black Arts Quarterly, School Library Journal, WarpLand and Hunger Mountain. Her first play, Nothing but a Woman, was a finalist in the Chicago Dramatists’ Many Voices Project (2006). Her fourth full-length play, Connor’s Boy, was staged in January 2008 as part of two new play festivals: in Cleveland, OH as part of Karamu House’s R. Joyce Whitley Festival of New Plays ARENAFEST, and in New York City as part of Maieutic Theatre Works’ Newborn Festival. Her one-act play, girl/power, was staged as part of New Perspectives Theater’s NYC festival of women’s work, GIRLPOWER, in 2008. Her award-winning picture book, Bird, was published in 2008. Her young adult novel, A Wish After Midnight, was released by AmazonEncore in February 2010. Her second novel, Ship of Souls, was published in February 2012. She currently lives in Brooklyn.