Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer

Originally from Atlanta, Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer is a poet and installation artist in St. Louis. She is the author of the poetry collections Well Waiting Room (Fordham University Press, Editor’s Prize, 2021), and Cleavemark (BOAAT Press, 2016), as well as the children’s book The Cloud Lasso (Penny Candy Books, 2019). Her poems, art, and criticism have appeared in or are forthcoming from numerous journals, including Bomb, Bennington Review, Georgia Review, Harvard Review, Iowa Review, AGNI, Washington Square, At Length, The Offing, LIT, The Wilson Quarterly, Colorado Review, Ploughshares, and the Poetry Foundation. Schlaifer was the runner-up for the 2019 Iowa Review Prize, and she has received grants from the Regional Arts Commission and the Mid-America Arts Alliance with her collaborative partner, Cheryl Wassenaar. In 2016, she served as the Greyfriar Writer-in-Residence + Living Literature Series at Siena College. She frequently collaborates with other artists on works that combine language and visual art.

Stephanie recommends Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard,. Me and You and Everyone We Know, directed by/starring Miranda July, and All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy.