Dina Elenbogen

Dina Elenbogen is an award winning poet and prose writer. Her collection of poems Apples of the Earth was published by Spuyten Duyvil Press in November 2005. She was recently nominated for a Pushcart in poetry. Her poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary magazines including Beyond Lament (Northwestern University Press), Without a Single Answer: Poems on Contemporary Israel (Judah Magnes Museum Press), Sarah’s Daughters Sing (Ktav Publishers), and magazines such as Prairie Schooner, Calyx, Poet Lore, Voices Israel and numerous others. Her poem “A Jew in Vienna” was the recipient of the Miriam Lindberg Israel Poetry for Peace Prize.

She has completed a book-length memoir about her work with Ethiopian immigrants in Israel. She has received two fellowships in creative nonfiction for it from the Illinois Arts council, as well as a grant from the Evanston Arts Council. Excerpts of it have appeared in the anthology Lost on the Map of the World: Jewish-American Women’s Quest for Home in Essays and Memoirs, 1890-present (Peter Lang Publishers) and the Jewish Women’s Literary Annual (2003).

Elenbogen’s essays have appeared in magazines including Tikkun, Chicago Reader, Midstream, the JUF News, Chicago Jewish News and others.

Her fiction has appeared in the anthology Nice Jewish Girls: Growing Up in America (Penguin/Plume), Hadassah Magazine and is forthcoming in the anthology Home: a Global Perspective.

Dina received a MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and a BA with honors in English and a certificate in Jewish studies from Indiana University.

She teaches creative writing at the University of Chicago Graham School and gives poetry and prose readings, leads workshops and lectures on Jewish Literature at numerous venues including universities, libraries, and cultural centers. She consults individually with writers of poetry, creative nonfiction and fiction.

Dina lives in Evanston Illinois with her husband Steve Siegel and their children Sarina and Ilan.