"To create true poetry requires hunger and passion, and Ana Elsner has it, in spades." –Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Ana Elsner was born in the British sector of postwar Germany and was educated in Europe and the U.S. During her studies at Georgetown University, she decided to make her home in the States. Ana Elsner holds a Magister Artium in Applied Linguistics  (Sprachwissenschaft). 
She taught ESL and later worked at two publishing houses. Eventually, she pursued a career in business and is now retired and living in Northern California.

Ana Elsner is engaged in writing broad ranging prose and poetry. She supports a variety of grassroots causes as a volunteer and adviser. 

Ana Elsner's writing gives testimony about the human condition as observed through her eyes. She has given solo readings on live Internet radio and video broadcasts and on Public Access TV. She is a frequent featured poet at libraries, bookstores and other literary venues.

Ana Elsner's poems can be found in literary magazines, journals and anthologies in Italy, Germany, U.S.A., Romania and Austria. Among them

PRIVATE - International Review of Poetry and Photography, # 40, "Crossing Boundaries", Spring 2008, Castel Bolognese, Italy; Rattlesnake Review, a quarterly of poetry and art, issue #23; The BEATITUDE 1959-2009 Golden Anniversary Issue, edited by Latif Harris and Neeli Cherkovski; CONTEMPORAN LITERAR ORIZONT - Revistă de cultură şi spiritualitate contemporană (Contemporary & Literary Horizon), Nr. 6/7, Bucureşti (Bucharest), Romania, editor Daniel Dragomirescu; Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Vol 27, #1, a project of CounterPULSE, a California non-profit corporation; Der Dreischneuß - Zeitschrift für Literatur, Nr. 21, "Labyrinthe", 2009 Marien Blatt Verlag, Lübeck, Germany, Herausgeberin Regine Mönkemeier; The Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Anthology, Rack-n-Pinion Press, editor Bob Booker; CAVEAT LECTOR, a magazine dedicated to literature, social and cultural criticism, philosophy, and the arts, Vol. 20, # 2, editors Christopher Bernard and Ho Lin; Poetry Salzburg Review, PSR 17, Salzburg, Austria, editor Dr. Wolfgang Görtschacher.  - (scroll down for a partial list of published poems)

In addition to writing her own poems and haiku, Ana Elsner is translating the poems of Paul Celan into English in an ongoing project.

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Ana Elsner's latest book of poetry, 'Ciphers Of Uncommon Origin: Poems by Ana Elsner', Volume I, was published in June 2007 by InstaPLANET Press, Language Maker Poetry Series.

Projects in the works:

All Poems Actual Size - The Poetry of Ana Elsner, slated to be published in Spring 2010 [Title © 2007 Ana Elsner]

Resurrected Omissions - Poems and Translations by Ana Elsner, slated for publication Summer 2011 [Title © 2007 Ana Elsner]

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Poet’s Statement

"My work is seasoned by a life lived in a great diversity of cultural contexts, which enables me to transcend the limits of onedimensionality. Although often provocative and (self) critical in tone, and neologistic in language, I consider my poems to be ageless and intellectually and emotionally accessible to a broad and diverse readership."
Ana Elsner, 2006

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Dedication

Ana Elsner has dedicated her work to raising the popularity and status of poetry. She believes in free and equal access to poetry for a wide and diverse audience worldwide.

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Future Engagements

Ana Elsner is available to feature at poetry events and reading engagements in the San Francisco Bay Area. For inquiries please contact her publisher by email: ten (at) instaplanet (dot) com

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Purchase Books

Ciphers Of Uncommon Origin - Poems By Ana Elsner, Volume I, is available for purchase at

The Beat Museum, 540 Broadway, San Francisco

Bird & Beckett Books, 653 Chenery Street, San Francisco

The Modern Times Books Collective, 888 Valencia Street, San Francisco

online directly from the publisher InstaPLANET Press

and at all of Ana Elsner's public reading engagements and featured poetry events (see sidebar) where the Poet will sign your copy of Ciphers by request.

Ana Elsner supports independent bookstores

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EDITORS' CHOICES - A partial list of poems by Ana Elsner that were selected and published in various international anthologies and literary magazines:

Forgetting Eyes in PRIVATE, Italy;
Pound Cake in Rattlesnake Review, U.S.;
Flirting in CAVEAT LECTOR, U.S.;
Der Gerechte Weg in Der Dreischneuß, Germany;
Confession in Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts, U.S.;
Canon in Words in Contemporary & Literary Horizon, Romania;
Three Haiku in The Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, U.S.;
Incubation in Poetry Salzburg Review, Austria.

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