Daniela Bouneva Elza was born in Bulgaria and grew up in Nigeria. After earning her Masters in English Philology from Sofia University, she lived in England for a year, then acquired her second Masters (in Linguistics) at Ohio University (USA). In 1999 she immigrated to Canada and has since lived in Vancouver, with her husband and their two children, where she gained her Ph.D in Education from Simon Fraser University.

As the first work in a proposed series to highlight emerging poets, 4 poets (Mother Tongue Publishing, 2009) featured work by Daniela Elza, Peter Morin, Al Rempel and Onjana Yawnghwe. It includes poetry drafts, interviews, author photographs, poetics and short biographies as well as translations of select poems into French, Thai, Bulgarian and Tahltan.

In 2010 Elza was the recipient of Pandora's Collective Citizenship Award. In 2011, she launched her an eBook, The Book of It. In 2012, she served as the Vancouver regional editor for the Pacific Poetry Project: An anthology of three cities (Portland, Seattle and Vancouver) that resulted in Alive at the Center (Ooligan 2013 $18.95 U.S.), and as the Vancouver/Lower Mainland Rep. for the Federation of BC Writers.

With an introduction by Aislinn Hunter, Elza's debut collection of poetry, the weight of dew (Mother Tongue 2012) is described as a literal, metaphorical and philosophical journey from the city (Vancouver) inland through (mostly) British Columbia.

Elza's work has appeared in more than 30 publications, including The Capilano Review, CV2, Van Gogh's Ear, Vallam, Rocksalt Anthology, A Verse Map of Vancouver and Poetic Inquiry. She received a Dean's Convocation Medal upon obtaining her Ph.D from Simon Fraser University in 2012.

BOOKS:

4 poets (Mother Tongue Publishing, 2009) $18.95 978-1-896949-03-1

the weight of dew (Mother Tongue 2012) $19.95 978-1-896949-21-5

Alive at the Center (Ooligan 2013 $18.95 U.S.) co-editor

milk tooth bane bone (Leaf Press 2013) $16.95 978-1-926655-60-4

the broken boat: new poems (Mother Tongue 2020) $19.95 978-1-896949-79-6

[BCBW 2020]