Elisa M. Speranza is the author of the 2022 novel The Italian Prisoner, a work of historical fiction set during World War II in New Orleans. The book 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, the Islanders Write conference on Martha’s Vineyard, and the Salem (MA) LitFest. She is a co-founder of the Washashores Writers Collective and a contributor to 64 Parishes magazine. Ms. Speranza has worked in journalism, local government, politics, and the corporate world. The granddaughter of Irish and Italian immigrants, Ms. Speranza is originally from Lynn, Massachusetts. She is an alumna of Boston College and Harvard’s Kennedy School and lives with her partner Jon Kardon in New Orleans, and Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts.