In our patriarchal culture, women are often reduced to two dimensional identities or forced to choose: virgin or whore, warrior or nurturer, lover or bitch--when in reality, we hold the potential to be all of these, and more. I hope that Fragments of Persephone will be a place women can see reflections of themselves in all of their multiplicity. I am particularly interested in a place where we can examine women's relationships to our bodies from multiple angles: as lived evidence of our experience--the ecstasy and the wound, as our connection to the wild, and as a source of powerful mythology.

Elana Bell’s first collection of poetry, Eyes, Stones (LSU 2012) was selected as the winner of the 2011 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. Elana leads creative writing workshops for women in prison, for educators, for high school students, and for the pioneering peace building and leadership organization, Seeds of Peace. She is the writer-in-residence for the Bronx Academy of Letters and curates public art installations with Poets In Unexpected Places.