About the Author

Elisa M. Speranza is a fiction writer based in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Her 2022 debut novel, The Italian Prisoner, was a finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. She serves on the board of the New Orleans Writers Workshop and has been a featured author at the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival, the Louisiana Book Festival, and the Islanders Write conference on Martha’s Vineyard. She is a co-founder of the Washashores Writers Collective.

The granddaughter of Irish and Italian immigrants, Ms. Speranza has been a writer and book nerd all her life. Her first paid job was in the children’s room of her town’s public library. She was a journalist early in her career and has worked in local government, on non-profit boards, and as a global business executive and corporate director.

Ms. Speranza was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and is an alumna of Boston College and Harvard’s Kennedy School. A New Orleanian by choice since 2002, she lives with Jon Kardon there and in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts.

Some of the ancestors, left to right: John and Mary Speranza, Fred and Fran Speranza, Ida Power, Elena (Drislane) Joanna (Reardon) and Fred Speranza.