Elizabeth Paul studied art and literature at The Evergreen State College and continued in an interdisciplinary vein at the University of Virginia where she earned an MA in English in the American Studies Program. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and her creative and critical work has appeared in River Teeth, Cold Mountain Review, Weave Magazine, and Assay. Elizabeth taught college writing and literature for six years, working with students from around the world. Prior to teaching, she wrote, edited, and designed content for the Library of Congress's educational website, The Learning Page. For two years she served as a Peace Corps education volunteer in Kyrgyzstan where she met and married her husband. Her interests in culture, art, language, and nature have taken her to Mexico, East Africa, Western Europe, Russia, and Turkey. Elizabeth teaches ESOL and writing in the Washington, D.C. area.

Books by Elizabeth Paul:

Other poems on the web by Elizabeth Paul:
"Blockade"
"Ode to Hope"
"Crossing Isanova Street"

Elizabeth Paul's Website.

About Reading Girl:

"Elizabeth Paul has given to these images of Matisse the texts they deserve: rapt responses in subtle striking language that dance with the artist's vision. Wonderful work."
—Lawrence Sutin

"In no slight miracle of poetical engagement, Elizabeth Paul's ekphrastic poems in Reading Girl manage to get inside the heart and soul of Henri Matisse's paintings and lay bare our common and always surprising and intimate humanity. She wisely tells us in one poem that 'Sometimes you have to subdue the mind to free it for others things. So says the briefcase'—and in poem after mysterious poem the mind is indeed subdued for that greatest glory of all—that spacious and always beautiful drawing room called contemplation. This is such a rare and quiet book that its very pages hum with stillness. I will gaze into its various wonders for the rest of my life."
—Robert Vivian