Biography

Elana Wolff, in her previous life, enjoyed a career teaching English as a Second Language at York University in Toronto and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Currently, she divides her time between writing, editing, and facilitating therapeutic art classes and workshops. In 2007 Elana became editor of the Guernica First Poets Series and to date has edited six books of poetry by emerging writers. Elana is interested in the healing properties of the arts, particularly in the nexus of writing and painting for fostering personal and interpersonal renewal.

Poetry Awards

• Winner, 2008 F.G. Bressani Prize for Poetry, You Speak to Me in Trees.
• Finalist, 2007 Acorn-Plantos Award for People's Poetry, You Speak to Me in Trees.
• Finalist, 2006 CBC Literary Awards Competition, "Waterwheel: A Sequence of Seventeen Poems."
• 2004 City of Toronto Citation for monthly articles on poems in Surface&Symbol, a publication of the Scarborough Arts Council.
• Finalist, 2004 The Pagitica Poetry Prize, "The Ravine."
• Finalist, 2004 CBC Literary Awards Competition,"Sanibel: A Sequence of Twenty-four Poems."
• Second Prize, 2004 Ontario Poetry Society Second Time Around Poetry Contest, "Hogheads."
• Third Prize, 2004 Toronto Poetry Competition,"Sidewise."
• Winner, 2004 Lichen Tracking a Serial Poet Contest,"Ketchikan," "Holyhead," "Edom From Eilat."
• Honourable Mention, 2004 Ray Burrell Award, "Beginning November."
• Third Prize, 2003 Queen Street Quarterly Annual Contest,"Lingonberry."
• First Prize, 2002 Scarborough Arts Council Poetry Contest,"Barberry."
• Second Prize, 2002 Federation of Ontario Naturalists Nature Poetry Contest, "Ontario Tableaus."
• Third Prize, 2001 Writers Undercover,"Sick Wife."
• First Prize, 2001 Qwerty Key Contest,"Skip Keys."
• Third Prize, 2001 Lapointe Prize,"Decorous."
• Winner, 2000 Inaugural Litwit Review Contest,"Rain."
• Third Prize, 2000 Orion Poetry Contest,"Redhead."
• Second Prize, 1998 Acorn-Rukeyser Festival Poetry Contest for "Low-Life."

Books in Print

• Helleborus & Alchémille, Éditions du Noroît, 2013, 101 pp.
  ISBN: 978-2-89018-821-1 Read Review by Jacqueline Borowick
• Startled Night, Guernica, 2011, 75 pp. $15.00
  ISBN: 978-1-55071-348-0 Read Review by John B. Lee
• Implicate Me: Short Essays on Reading Contemporary Poems, Guernica, 2010.
• Slow Dancing: Creativity and Illness (Duologue and Rengas) with Malca Litovitz, Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2008.
• You Speak to Me in Trees, Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2006.
• Mask, Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2003.
• Birdheart, Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2001.
• Title of Anthology, The Ontario Poetry Society, 2022.
• Poetry Collection Vol 2, Publisher Name, 2020.