Elise Blackwell (’88, ’90) is the author of five novels: Hunger, The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish, Grub, An Unfinished Score, and The Lower Quarter. Her work has been translated into several languages, and her books have been named to numerous best-of-the-year lists, adapted for the stage, and served as the inspiration for a Decemberists’ song. Originally from southern Louisiana, Elise teaches in the MFA program at the University of South Carolina and hosts the literary series The Open Book. In addition to working on her sixth novel, Elise is writing a hundred flash fictions triggered by Pablo Neruda’s love sonnets and set along the Gulf Coast. Unlike Neruda’s poems, which are written in the voice of one lover to one beloved, these pieces share no characters and explore a wide range of romantic experience.