Elizabeth Searle

Elizabeth Searle is a fiction writer and scriptwriter. She is the author of five books of fiction, the playwright of TONYA & NANCY: THE ROCK OPERA– which has drawn major media coverage and which has been widely performed– and the co-writer of I’LL SHOW YOU MINE, a feature film which is forthcoming from Duplass Brothers Productions.  Elizabeth’s rock opera has been produced in Boston, Chicago, LA and at NYMF in NYC, with an award-winning production in 2020 that starred Broadway’s Andrea McArdle and a CD out from Broadway Records. Elizabeth’s novel A FOUR-SIDED BED is in development as a feature film; Elizabeth’s script for it has won multiple 2020/2019 awards. An award-winning short film based on her novel, FOUR-SIDED, screened at festivals in Cannes, Shanghai, Boston and elsewhere. Elizabeth’s novella CELEBRITIES IN DISGRACE was produced as a short film and screened at multiple festivals. I’LL SHOW YOU MINE, the forthcoming feature that Elizabeth co-wrote with David Shields and Tiffany Louquet, stars Poorna Jagannathan and was filmed in 2021.

Elizabeth’s novel WE GOT HIM was a finalist for the Midwest Book Award and was released as an AudioBook in 2018. Elizabeth’s previous books include her novel GIRL HELD IN HOME, selected for the New Rivers Press American Fiction series, as well as CELEBRITIES IN DISGRACE, a finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize; A FOUR-SIDED BED (nominated for an American Library Association Book Award and an Editor’s Choice at Booklist, American Online, Amazon and more) and MY BODY TO YOU, a story collection that won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize (James Salter, judge). Elizabeth has co-edited two pop culture anthologies: SOAP OPERA CONFIDENTIAL, and IDOL TALK, a teen idol anthology that premiered as a stage show in 2019. Elizabeth’s work has appeared in over a dozen anthologies including DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME (Simon & Schuster) and KNITTING YARNS (Norton). 

Over thirty of her short stories have been published in magazines such as Ploughshares, AGNI, Redbook, New England Review, Massachusetts Review, Five Points, Michigan Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review and more.  She has new fiction in Solstice in 2021.  Elizabeth’s additional theater works include her chamber opera, TONYA & NANCY: THE OPERA produced in Boston, Minneapolis and Houston and her one-act play STOLEN GIRL SONG, produced most recently ‘off off Broadway’ at the Act One One Act Play Festival. Elizabeth’s theater works have been featured in stories on GOOD MORNING AMERICA, The New York Times, CBS, CNN, NPR, the AP and more. Elizabeth served for over a decade on the Executive Board of PEN/New England, working on Children’s Literacy and Free Speech issues.  She has taught at Stonecoast MFA since the program’s inception. Visit her website.