Elena Pinnen is a PhD in Italian contemporary literature and 
medicine at the University of Cambridge. She is currently working 
as an Italian instructor in San Francisco. Her most recent 
collection of poems, On a Breaking Wave and Other Natural 
Catastrophes (The Los Angeles Press, 2024), speaks of waves 
and surfing, and engages the truths of colonialism in the Pacific. 
For such a book, Elena was awarded the Knight of the Order of 
Merit of the Italian Republic in 2025. Elena’s poems have been 
featured in a number of anthologies in the U.S., such as ‘San 
Francisco Bards Poetry Anthology,’ ‘Poets’ Choice,’ and 
‘The Healing Muse’.