Former 12-year Regional Director of the Poetry Society of America, Elena Karina Byrne has been a Contributing Editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books, one of the final judges for the Kate and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Awards in Poetry from 2016-2018, and one of three 2018-2019 Georgia Circuit visiting poets. Elena also curated programs for the GRI at the J. Paul Getty Center, MOCA, the Craft Contemporary, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, The Clark Library, and USC’s Doheny Memorial Library, among others. She is a private editor, freelance lecturer, 25-year Programming Consultant & Poetry Stage Manager for The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, and the Literary Programs Director for the historic Ruskin Art Club.

Elena's books include If This Makes You Nervous (Omnidawn, 2021), No Don’t (What Books Press, 2020), Squander (Omnidawn, 2016), MASQUE (Tupelo Press, 2008), and The Flammable Bird, (Zoo Press, 2002). A Pushcart Prize recipient, Elena’s poems, reviews, essays, and interviews can be found in Poetry, Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Kyoto Journal, Volt, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Verse Daily, Poetry International, Poetry Daily, Narrative, Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, New American Writing, Interlitq, Plume, The Adroit Journal, LARB, Western Humanities Review, The Eloquent Poem anthology, Reel Verse: Poems About the Movies, BOMB, and elsewhere.

Under the inspiration of AUSB’s MFA program in Writing & Contemporary Media, Elena is now completing her first book of short stories, screenplays, and a collection of hybrid essays entitled Voyeur Hour: Poetry, Art, Film, & Desire.