photo credit: Alexis Rhone Fancher

Elya Braden was born a poet, singer/actor and artist, but took an 18-year hiatus from her creative life so she could play “Let’s Make A Deal” as a business lawyer and entrepreneur. After serving as General Counsel of a public Internet company in the late ‘90’s, she retired from law at the end of 2000.

 Elya went on to create a networking group for experienced women lawyers, to launch a new business, to serve on corporate and non-profit boards and to work on a congressional campaign. Elya also returned to her passion for singing in jazz clubs, cabarets and musicals, as well as acting in plays, independent films and commercials.

Elya is now a poet, artist, and speaker living in Los Angeles where she leads workshops for other writers. She has been a featured reader at Poetry Fixx, the Rapp Salon and Tasty Words and reads at other venues throughout LA. Her work has appeared in Dogwood, Euphony, Forge, poemmemoirstory, Shark Reef, Split Lip Magazine, Stoneboat Literary Journal, Willow Review and other publications. She released her first chapbook, In Love's Garden, in 2013.

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