Profile

Elise Juska is the director of the BFA in Creative Writing program at the University of the Arts. Her new book, a novel-in-stories, is forthcoming from Grand Central/Hachette in early 2014. She is the author of three previous novels, published by Simon & Schuster: One for Sorrow, Two for Joy; The Hazards of Sleeping Alone; and Getting Over Jack Wagner, which was named a "Critic's Choice" in People magazine and optioned for film.

Juska's short fiction has been widely published in journals and magazines including The Hudson Review, The Missouri Review, Salmagundi, Carolina Quarterly, Seattle Review, Colorado Review, Black Warrior Review, American Literary Review, Harvard Review and numerous other places. Her short stories have been cited as distinguished by The Best American Short Stories and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. New work will be appearing in upcoming issues of The Gettysburg Review and Ploughshares.

In addition to fiction, Juska's essays have appeared in publications including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Esquire.com and the anthology The Subway Chronicles: Scenes from Life in New York. A nonfiction piece about reading her grandparents' WWII love letters will be featured in Good Housekeeping in February 2013. 

Juska began teaching at the University of the Arts in 2000 and, in 2002, received the Liberal Arts Division's Director's Award for Teaching Excellence. In addition to directing the Creative Writing Program, she serves as faculty advisor for the student literary magazine, Underground Pool.