Meet the Author: Elizabeth Bruce’s collection, Universally Adored and Other One Dollar Stories (Vine Leaves Press, 2024), won the 2025 IBA Short Story Award and Literary Titan Gold Award in Fiction, as well as an IAN Book of the Year Finalist distinction. Her debut novel, And Silent Left the Place, won Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s Fiction Prize, as well as a ForeWord Magazine Bronze Prize and the Texas Institute of Letters’ Finalist Award.
She’s published in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Korea, Israel, Sweden, Romania, Malawi, Yemen, and the Philippines, in such journals as The Ilanot Review, FireWords, The Bangalore Review, and Two Thirds North. Her book, CentroNía’s Theatrical Journey Playbook: Introducing Science to Early Learners through Guided Pretend Play, won or placed in four contests. A DC-based Texas author, she’s received fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, HumanitiesDC, and McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation fellowships, and studied with Richard Bausch, the late Lee K. Abbott, Janet Peery, John McNally, and Liam Callanan. A character actor and co-founder of DC’s Sanctuary Theatre, Elizabeth co-hosts Creativists in Dialogue: A Podcast Embracing the Creative Life and its Theatre in Community series.
Learn more: elizabethbrucedc.com • Listen to her podcast: Creativists in Dialogue: A Podcast Embracing the Creative Life
About
In Universally Adored and Other One Dollar Stories, Elizabeth Bruce gives readers 33 ways of looking at a dollar. Her empathetic, humorous, and disarming embrace of plain-spoken people searching for a way out, charms and provokes. These are bittersweet stories of resilience and defiance. A color-obsessed artist, draws a facsimile of a dollar-a masterpiece universally adored-to win her girlfriend back. While checking for spare change in the laundry, in “Bald Tires” a Tennessee housewife with a malcontent husband finds an unused condom in his Sunday trousers. In “The Forgiveness Man,” a runaway teen with a newborn follows a vagabond healer absolving the bedraggled godless through hugs of forgiveness. And in “Magic Fingers, a ladies’ room attendant tracked down by her abusive ex finds refuge in a cheap motel with a 1970s era bed massager. Riffing on the intimate object of a dollar, Bruce’s humane short fictions-from a great mashed potato war to the grass Jesus walked on-ring with the exquisite voices of characters in analog worlds. John McNally, author of The Book of Ralph: A Novel, says of the book: “Exquisite short stories that give me hope.” Click here to buy the book.
Fiction. The burden of silence passes from old to young in this lyric tale of violence, redemption, and love reclaimed in the cruel, dry land of Texas. Richard Bausch has said of AND SILENT LEFT THE PLACE: “Elizabeth Bruce’s characters leap off the page at you; they have vividness and substance, and the result, reading her work, is that one feels the life there.” Bruce, the winner of the 2007 Washington Writers’ Publishing House Fiction Competition, has published in The Washington Post, Writers’ Roundtable, The Long Short Story, and other publications. Click here to buy the book.
About our Elaine’s Literary Salon Host, Jeffrey James Higgins: A retired supervisory special agent who writes thrillers, short stories, creative nonfiction, and essays, Jeff has wrestled a suicide bomber, fought the Taliban in combat, and chased terrorists across five continents. He received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Heroism and the DEA Award of Valor. Jeffrey has been interviewed by CNN, National Geographic, and The New York Times. Learn more: jeffreyjameshiggings.com
Find more of Elaine’s Literary Salon events here. And check back for new episodes of Elaine’s Literary Salon on Inkandescent.tv and listen to all the podcasts on InkandescentRadio.com.
Elaine’s Literary Salon
About Elaine’s Restaurant: A menu filled with delicious modern Mediterranean cuisine selections is sure to please everyone in your party. The dishes are inspired by exquisite food from Alexandria, Egypt — a blend of Middle Eastern and French, Greek, and Italian influences. Elaine’s is named for the owner’s grandmother and is based on a promise she made at the age of 12, growing up in Cairo. “I promised my grandma I would someday own a restaurant and name it after her,” shares Cynthia, who is also an author. She and her husband, bestselling thriller novelist Jeffrey James Higgins, are proud to share my family’s recipes with new friends and families in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.” Located in an 1880s building, it was the previous home for 38 years of the beloved bistro Bilbo Baggins. The newly renovated restaurant is located in the heart of Old Town’s Historic District within sight of the Potomac River and Founders Park, just a few blocks from The Torpedo Factory Art Center, and Old Town Alexandria Waterfront. Make a reservation today: elaines-restaurant.com.