Elena Belyea is a queer-identified playwright, performer, poet, producer, and recent graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s Playwriting Program. She was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, where she has been producing work for the past 10 years. She was Artistic Director of Edmonton’s Common Ground Arts Society from 2012 to 2013, during which time she co-founded the Edmonton Found Festival, a site-specific multidisciplinary arts event which takes place in non-traditional venues. She is the recent winner of the Wildfire National Playwriting Competition with her play “Cleave” and recipient of the Enbridge Nextfest Emerging Artist Award. She has published poems in North Carolina’s Metabolism and Edmonton’s Other Voices.