Elinora Westfall
Influenced by David Bowie, Virginia Woolf, and Dusty Springfield, Elinora Westfall is a multi-award-winning lesbian writer of stage, screen, fiction, poetry, and radio.​Her short story, A Terrible Thing Has Happened, was shortlisted for The Bedford Prize in 2022, her novel, Everland was selected for the Penguin and Random House WriteNow Editorial Programme in 2021, and her short films have been selected by Pinewood Studios & Lift-Off Sessions, Cannes Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, Camden Fringe Festival, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, while her theatre and audio shows have been selected by The British Library and performed in London's West End and on Broadway, where she won the award for Best Monologue. ​Elinora was selected as one of the 2022/2023 All Stories alumni and her full-length poetry collection, Life in the Dressing Room of the Theatre is published by Vine Leaves Press.
Elinora is currently working on an historical drama series as well as the translation and re-write of Christa Winsloe's novel, Das Madchen, Manuela.
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FILM, THEATRE & RADIO
A Girl Called Dusty - Selected and produced by Thalia Theatre Company in May 2023. Also staged at Rogue Theater Festival in June 2023 and The Secret Theatre Festival, New York, 2023.
Merivale - Performed live on Yorick Radio.
3 Plays - Selected by Haywire Theatre, Spring 2023.
The Art of Almost- Lesbian comedy-drama play, performed at Heller Theatre, July 2022.
How She Kills - Play performed by SLAMMinutes does Mental Health at the Pleasance Theatre in London in 2022, Mercury Theatre, Colchester, and developed by Queer Colors Theatre in 2022.
French Beans & Inner Peace - Comedy monologue selected by Eclectic Theatre’s Half Hour Audio Hour in July 2022 and BBC Radio’s Upload Festival 2021.
Everland - Commissioned 8-part BBC Radio Drama. Available as an audiobook on Spotify, iTunes, Anchor, and various other audio streaming services.
Confessions: The Hours - Multi-award-winning short film adapted for the stage and performed at Thornhill Theatre, London, and Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, where it won the award for Best Monologue. Confessions also featured in Broadway Winterfest in November 2021 and was selected by Fillum International Storical & Short Film Festival (FISSF), QueerBee Festival, Festival Genders & Performances, Pinewood Studios & Lift-Off Sessions.
The Suddenness of Quiet - A short film exploring loss. Selected by Festival del Cinema di Cefalu, Clapperboard Golden Festival, Madeira Curtas Short Films Contest (Madeira Island), Think Shorts, Pinewood Studios and Lift-Off Sessions.
I Am Winter - A multi-award-winning short film exploring narcissistic abuse in a lesbian relationship. Selected by FFilm Cymru Wales Lesbian & Bisexual Women’s Festival. Available on LesFlicks VOD Streaming Service and Think Shorts. Selected by Redmoon Film Festival, Pinewood Studios, and Lift-Off Sessions. Also used as a promotional piece by Broxtowe Women’s Project.
Tig & Lomster - Children’s radio drama aired on BBC Radio and performed by Nick Knowles for the MFPT Big Shout Out Festival.
A Terrible Thing Has Happened - Audio short story performed by Emmerdale's Samantha Giles for the BBC Upload Festival 2021 and performed on BBC Radio Merseyside and BBC Radio Sussex.
Cecily and the Dragon - Children’s audio drama, performed by Nick Knowles for the children of the NHS workers at the MPFT Big Shout Out Festival.
AWARDS & NOMINATIONS
A Girl Called Dusty (theatre play) - Winner of the Village Playwrights 2023 competition.
The Roses and the Weeds - Shortlisted by Crossing the Tees short story competition 2023. Received an honourable mention by Wordruner eChapbooks.
A Terrible Thing Has Happened - Short story shortlisted by The Bedford Prize 2023.
French Beans and Inner Peace - Comedy monologue shortlisted by Madwomen Monologues by Baggage Productions, Melbourne, Australia. Also selected by BBC UPLOAD as part of their partnership with The British Library, collecting audio pieces for a special digital archive at The British Library which captures how people across England responded to the Pandemic.
Love, Mary- DYSPLA & Hat Trick Productions finalist 2022.
Everland - YA novel selected for the Penguin and Random House WriteNow Editorial Programme.
I Am Winter - Selected by Pinewood Studios & Lift-Off Sessions, Think Shorts, SonderBlu Festival, Redmoon Festival and was selected as a semi-finalist at the International Moving Film Festival 2021.
Confessions: The Hours - Winner of Full Stack KDC Theatre's Playwriting Competition. Winner of the Best Monologue Award, Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York. Semi-Finalist at the International Moving Film Festival 2021. Performed at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre, London in June 2021 Also selected by Pinewood Studios & Lift-Off Sessions, Festival RNAB, The Paus Premiere Festival, Fillim International, Festival of Genders and Performance, African Women International, QueerBee LGBT festival and Clapperboard Golden Festival,
A Terrible Thing Has Happened - Winner of the Living History Short Story Award.
Memories of a Mermaid - Second-place award at the Baltimore Science Fiction Society.
The Art of Almost - A literary novella short-listed for the Secret Attic Short Story Award, and the Lambda Literary Award.
Merivale - Long-listed for the New Welsh Review writing contest.
Coal to Burn the World - Winner of the Creative Writing Ink Competition October 2021.
How She Kills - Selected by Pinewood Studios & Lift-Off Sessions, SonderBlu Festival, and African Women Mobile International Film Festival.
Anonymous Was a Woman - Collected short stories by Elinora Westfall shortlisted by Wordrunner eChapbooks 2021.
War’s Orphan and the Sound of Silence - Pushcart Prize nominee 2022. Long-listed for the New Welsh Review writing contest.
What Remains - Nominated for the Small Press Fiction Award 2022.
Life in the Dressing Room of the Theatre - Poetry collection short-listed by Broken Sleep Books.
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FICTION & POETRY
Life in the Dressing Room of the Theatre - full-length poetry collection published by Vine Leaves Press (2023).
The Art of Almost - full-length short story collection forthcoming with Vine Leaves Press.
Things She Thought While Falling - Short story collection, published by Elsker Publishing House 2024.
Other works of poetry and fiction published in:
Poetry Salzburg, The Rialto, Medium, The New Yorker, Yahoo News, Medium, The Paris Review, Harper’s Bazaar, The Sheepshead Review, Acumen, Rattle, Stand, Every Day Fiction, Sylvia Magazine, Obsessed with Pipework, Smokelong Quarterly, Crannog, Glint, QueerSpec, Native Skin, The Mighty, The Gay and Lesbian Review, New Welsh Review, Gaze, Open Journal of Arts & Letters, The Thing Itself, Shorts Magazine, The Girl You Need, Wicked Gay Ways, Mycelia, Think Shorts, Litro, Litro US, Flash Fiction Magazine, Macromic, Fictional Cafe, Twenty-Two Twenty Eight, Swimm, Havik, The Nabu Review, Ponder, The Nervous Breakdown, Love in the Time of Covid, Hamilton Stone Review, Secret Attic, Prismatica, The Poetry Question, Crow Toes, Abergavenny Press, Zoetic Press, Bandit Fiction, Processing Crisis, Harpy Hybrid, Storm Cellar, The Ilanot Review, 805 Lit, Bitter Fruit, Pure Slush, Carolina Muse, The Bookends Review, Red Eft, The Chamber, The Bitchin' Kitsch, The Wire, New Plains Review, Green Ink, Ink Sweat & Tears, Orca, GHLL, ELJ Editions, Kin Literary Journal, Sinister Wisdom, Marble, Derailleur, Third Lane Magazine, Liquid Imagination, Decoded: Pride Issue, Sinister Wisdom, Poetry Magazine, Smoke, Breath and Shadow, Passengers, Peeking Cat, Agapanthus, Derailleur, Poetry Magazine, Leading Edge Magazine, Avatar, Aayona Magazine, The Avenue, Cerasus, Barzakh, Processing Crisis, Masque & Spectacle, Mindfull, Cerasus, Subterranean Blue, Other-Worldly Women, Beyond Words and many more.
NON-FICTION & JOURNALISM
I Know Who Killed Jenny Schecter - Pop culture article published in Nonchalant Magazine, 2024.
I Was in an Abusive Lesbian Relationship - Anonymously published by The Doe in 2024.