Discipline: Literature

Richard Elman

Discipline: Literature
Region: Stony Brook, NY
MacDowell Fellowships: 1970, 1973, 1976
Richard M. Elman (1934–1997) was a novelist, poet, journalist, and teacher. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Yiddish-speaking and came to the United States at the turn of the 20th century from Russo-Poland. His boyhood is captured in his comic novel Fredi & Shirl & The Kids: An Autobiography In Fables. At Syracuse University (B. A., 1955), Elman's teachers, Daniel Curley and Donald Dike, encouraged his writing. He thought of himself as a socialist and his journalism reflected his concerns about social and political injustice.

Studios

Star

Richard Elman worked in the Star studio.

Funded by Alpha Chi Omega, a national fraternity founded in 1885, Star Studio — built in 1911–1912 — was the first studio given to the residency by an outside organization. To this day, Alpha Chi sorority pledges learn the story of Star Studio and its role in supporting American arts and letters. Beginning as a nicely proportioned…

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