Eleni Karelis is a first year PhD student. She holds a BA from the University of Kentucky where she studied English with a minor in Appalachian Studies. Her undergraduate thesis, Appalachian Adolescence, is a chapbook of poetry that documents Appalachian culture of the past and present. 

She received her MA in Creative Writing from the University of Westminster in London, England where she researched 14th century English piracy on the Thames. Her master’s dissertation, The Amulet of Antioch, explores the gritty culture of Chaucerian London.