Elizabeth Cohen
writing coach, author, poet, activist
Announcing the release of a new book of poetry, Mermaids of Albuquerque, by poet, book coach, editor, journalist, mama, activist and dog guardian, Elizabeth Cohen.
Elizabeth runs New Mexico-based boutique book coaching business, BookCoachMagick, offering everything from one-on-one intensive manuscript coaching and writing services, to global writing retreat experiences.
In addition, she writes fictiion, poetry and essays. New stories and works can be read in The Coachella Review, Spotlong Review, Cagibi, Minyan Magazine, Confetti, Persimmon Tree, Brusssels Review, and other literary venues. Her poems have been recently published in Blue Mesa, San Antonio Review, A Room of Her Own; Crosswinds, Yale Review, and anthologies such as Love in the Original Language, Walk on the Wild Side: Urban American Poetry Since 1975; Ink; Sonia Sanchez at 90; and the forthcoming Climate Change Chronicles. She is the author of five books of poetry, a celebrated memoir, a book of short stories, and a co-authored book of essays with Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord, the first Navajo woman surgeon. Her newest book of poetry, Mermaids of Albuquerque, dropped November 2024.
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​​​​​​With an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, she recently retired from her position as an associate professor of English from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh to work on her writing and as a full-time writing coach (www.bookcoachmagick.com).
She serves on the editorial board of Mnemosyne, a publisher of memoirs by women, and imprint of Saint Julian Press, in Houston, Texas; and on the board and as an editor for High Desert Haint, a Santa Fe publisher, and served on the board of the North Star Museum of the Underground Railroad, among other associations. She edits and runs the online magazine Memoirabilia.
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She loves books and writing them. She loves a tough freelance journalism assignment she can dig into. She likes to draw, although she is pretty bad at it. She loves to go to far flung places and then write about them.
She stands for things. A peace advocate, she stands for fair pay, equal rights, reproductive rights, queer and trans rights, diversity, feminism, preserving the natural places of the planet, protecting the animals.
She volunteers at Barrett House, a women's shelter in Albuquerque where she runs writing workshops. She works with special needs children in the Albuquerque Public Schools.
She loves kids, dogs, and horses. She loves toast.
That about covers it.
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Former Editor of Saranac Review
Visiting Professor WCSU
MFA Mentor, WCSU
SUNY Plattsburgh Associate Professor
Gotham Writers Workshops Instructor
Book Reviewer (American Book Review, @theinkwell)
MacDowell Fellow
Columbia University MFA
UNM BA, Magna Cum Laude,
Oprah Magazine Book-of-the-Week
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