
Elizabeth Cohen
Author. Editor. Journalist. Book Coach.
New Poems 2021
Elizabeth Deborah Cohen
151 Broad Street
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
607-221-2178/ecohe001@plattsburgh.edu
https://web.plattsburgh.edu/academics/english/faculty/cohen.php
CURRENT POSITION
SUNY Plattsburgh August 2010- present
Associate Professor of English, Writing Arts Division/English
Editor, Saranac Review
Teach college writing, comp, memoir, poetry, fiction, literature
and creative writing courses to undergraduates.
EDUCATION
Columbia University New York, NY
• MFA — Creative Writing, poetry, 1990
Temple University Philadelphia, PA
• MA — The Anthropology of Visual Communications (interdisciplinary program on cultural studies and filmmaking, 1986)
University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM
• BA — Anthropology, minor English. Magna Cum Laude, 1983
Additional TEACHING (selected)
Western Connecticut State University 2008-2010
Assistant Professor of Writing, Linguistics and Creative Process
Taught English 100, 101, journalism and creative writing courses to undergraduates
Western Connecticut State University 2007-2008
Writer-in-Residence, MFA PROFESSIONAL WRITING PROGRAM
Taught graduate students journalism, poetry, memoir and magazine writing
Gotham Writer’s Workshop 2007-present
Teach creative non-fiction and fiction courses online to online adult ed learners
Broome Community College- 2006
Taught undergraduate comp and creative writing courses focusing on fiction, playwriting, poetry and CNF essay.
State University of New York — Binghamton 2005
Philip and Eleanor Piaker Chair for Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and Judaic Studies. Taught creative writing.
The New School for Social Research- New York City 1998
Created and taught one year long course in publishing and writing for the internet.
University of New Mexico – Gallup Branch 1995
Taught courses in English department, Writing & Rhetoric, English Composition and Introduction to Journalism
CUNY Staten Island- 1989
Taught English composition, rhetoric and college writing
WRITING Honors/Awards
* Winner, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, 2003
* New York Times Notable Book of the Year selection, 2003
* New York State Associated Press Award recipient
* State of New York Legislative Resolution honoring The Family on Beartown Road
* Winner, fiction category Adirondack Writer’s Project, Saranac, NY 2014, for The Hypothetical Girl
* Winner, New England Medical Writer’s Association Award
* Winner, Jon Davidoff Scholarship, Wesleyan Writer’s Conference
* Columbia School of Journalism Certificate of Merit winner for “outstanding work in the coverage of race and ethnicity in journalism”
* MacDowell Colony Fellow, The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
* Distinguished Visiting Poet, The Poetry Center, Paterson, NJ
* Best summer book selection, O Magazine, 2013
* Co-Winner, best book of poems, BIRD LIGHT, 2016, Adirondack Center for Writing
Books
The Under, A Novel. Shopping in the spring of 2018
The Hypothetical Girl, Other Press, August 2013. Fiction. Short stories on the theme of digital love. Selected/reviewed by Oprah Magazine as a “summer must read and “book of the week
The House on Beartown Road (paperback title The Family on Beartown Road), Random House, 2003/4. In print, large print, digital and audio.New York Times notable book of the Year, 1st chapter featured on NYTimes web site. B&N Discover Great New Writers winner, State of New York Legislative Resolution. Excerpted widely in national magazines including Reader’s Digest and the Times of London Sunday Magazine.
The Scalpel and the Silver Bear, Bantam, 1998 a biography of first Native American woman surgeon. Written with Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord. Excerpt printed in The New York Times, and in A Life in Medicine: A Literary Anthology, Random House, edited by Robert Cole. Winner, New England Medical Writer’s Association Award.
Bird Light, poems, Saint Julian Press, Houston, Texas, 2016
What the Trees Said, poems, Split Oak Press, 2013
The Economist’s Daughter, poems, Excited Utterance Press, 2009
Mother Love, poems, Keshet Press, 2008
Impossible Furniture, poems, Nightshade Press, 1995
Georgie, the Flying Dog, children’s book, Trafford, 2004
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PERIODICAL, Newspaper, AND ANTHOLOGY Publications (Selected)
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“A Plague and a Blessing in My Empty Nest”, essay. NYT, 2018
“Anthropologist of Love” in THE WRITER MAGAZINE, Winter, 2013. Essay about writing about relationships and love.
“The House that Sylvia Built,” Adirondack Life, 2015. Forthcoming article about writer Kate Moses’ house in Essex, NY
“Choosing Happiness.” SELF Magazine, An article about the obsession of Americans with optimism and feeling good, forthcoming August, forthcoming fall 2009.
“A Predator in the House,” Brain,Child, 2015.
“The Fifth Commandment.” Bread and Fire: Jewish Women Find God in the Everyday, Urim Press, 2008.
“Love at Any Age.“ Behind the Bedroom Door: Women Write about Sex, Random House, 2009.
“Love at Age.” In MORE Magazine, Dec., 2008.
“Bless.” Poem in Connecticut River Review.
“The Gravity Doctor.” Short story in The Full Moon Anthology, spring 2010.
“Listening to Water.” Poem in anthology of the same name, Foothills Press, 2008.
“A House Made of Straw.” Press & Sun Bulletin, Feb. 2008.
“Close to Home.” Newspaper columns, Press & Sun-Bulletin, 2005-2009.
“Love Shine.” Short Story in Small Spiral notebook, 2004.
Additional creative pieces – stories, poems and essays— in lit mags and journals, including Yale Review, Northwest Review, River Styx, Open City, Kalliope, Ellipsis: Literature and Art; and in anthologies such as Walk on the Wild Side: Urban American Poetry since 1975 (Scribners), edited by Nicholas Christopher.
Articles/Journalism in SELF, Glamour, Redbook, Family Circle, Newsweek, NYT Magazine, Rolling Stone and other national magazines.
EDITORIAL
Editor, The Saranac Review, 2010- present
Fiction Editor, The Broome Review, 2008-11
Staff Editor, The Columbia Review, 1989-90
Editor, Conceptions Southwest, 1982
Journalism (Selected)
The Press & Sun Bulletin
• Columnist: penned weekly column, book reviewer, features reporter (1999-2008)
• Won Columbia University School of Journalism Certificate of Merit for special issue of newspaper “Who Are We” and for creating ongoing annual youth newspaper in Binghamton, NY, awarded at national conference “Let’s Do It Better: Workshops on Journalism, Race, and Ethnicity” in New York City
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Won New York State Associated Press award on two occasions
The New York Times
• Worked as a clerk and op-ed assistant to Anna Quindlen, then as stringer, (1990-1995)
• Served as online editor for New York Times Book Forum, cyberforums, 1990
• Wrote articles for sections including Health, Home, Science, Education, Technology, Cybertimes, Sunday Book Review, Metro, and National (including a page-one story)
The New York Post
• Worked as a reporter (1997-9), filing stories on health, women’s issues, trends, fashion, book reviews, assorted cultural topics
For article examples and book excerpts, go to www.elizabethcohen.me
Readings and PUBLIC APPEARANCES (Selected)
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Visiting Author, Knox College, May, 2015
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AWP conference, organized and moderated two panels, spring 2015
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Visiting Author, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, fall, 2013
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Visiting Writer, Poets & Writer’s Grant, Saranac Library Free Library, September, 2013
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Visiting Poet, Bright Hill Literary Arts Center, Treadwell, NY September 2013
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Writing Along the River, A Celebration of Place, Owego, NY, May 2009
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Broome Public Library, Binghamton, NY – Three Upstate Poets Reading, 2008
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Faculty Reading Series, Western Connecticut State University, 20009
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Visiting Poet, The Poetry Center, Patterson, NJ – Taught workshop
and gave reading with poet Tom Lux, 2007.
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My Kid Could Paint That (Sony Classic Pictures, 2007)
-give narration and commentary throughout documentary released in nationally and aired on Lifetime, based on a local news story I wrote about a four-year-old artist.
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Manhattan readings at such venues as KGB, Cornelia Street Café,
Nuyorican Café, Bowery Poetry Café, The Poetry Project, and Barnes &
Noble., among other locales.
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Internationally recognized speaker on topics of elder care, Alzheimer’s disease, end-of-life decision making (spokesperson for the Alzheimer’s Association). Also lecture on women and work and raising families. Speeches and keynotes, including:
Keynote, Broome County Council of Churches, 2008
Visiting Lecturer, Syracuse University, 2008
Keynote, Cortland Respite Care women’s luncheon, 2007
Keynote, American Association of University Women, 2006
Keynote, NY State Teachers Association 20th Anniversary Luncheon, 2006
Keynote, Geriatric Scholar Certificate Program, 2005
Keynote, Alzheimer’s Awareness Luncheon, Alzheimer’s Society, Western Canada, 2005
Keynote, Advance Care Planning Week, Southern Tier End of Life Coalition, 2005
Keynote, London Elder Care Symposium, 2005
Invited Lecturer, Social Work Teaching Day, Binghamton, NY, 2005
Keynote, “A Celebration of Caring,” Alzheimer’s Association, Pittsburgh, 2004
Keynote, “When the Diagnosis is Alzheimer’s: Help for the Journey,” Alzheimer’s Association, Kingston, NY, 2003
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References
Brian Clements
Professor, Coordinator, MFA in Professional Writing
Western Connecticut State University
181 White St.
Danbury, NY 12902
(203)837-8876
Hired and supervised me as writer in residence in the MFA Professional Writing Program.
Liz Rosenberg
Professor of English
Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY 13902
(607) 797-6599
Referred me for Piaker Chair in Creative Writing at Binghamton University.
Alex Steele
Director
The Gotham Writer’s Workshop
NYC
(212)974-8377
Hired me and supervises me at GWW.