Pennsylvania State University. Photo: George Chriss, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Penn_state_old_main_summer.jpg)
Yale University. Photo: Pradipta Mitra, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yale_Law_School_in_the_Sterling_Law_Building.jpg)
Syracuse University. Photo: John Marino, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Syracuse_University_Aerial_view.jpg)
Le Moyne College. Photo: Crazyale, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lemoyne_Sign.jpg)
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Photo: DASonnenfeld, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ESF-Marshall-Hall.jpg)
Pennsylvania State University. Photo: George Chriss, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Penn_state_old_main_summer.jpg)
Yale University. Photo: Pradipta Mitra, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yale_Law_School_in_the_Sterling_Law_Building.jpg)
Syracuse University. Photo: John Marino, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Syracuse_University_Aerial_view.jpg)
Le Moyne College. Photo: Crazyale, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lemoyne_Sign.jpg)
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Photo: DASonnenfeld, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ESF-Marshall-Hall.jpg)
Elizabeth Twiddy was born on November 16, 1973, in Detroit, Michigan, to Frances Elizabeth and William Twiddy. She was raised in the Detroit area and developed an early interest in language, sound, animals, and poetry. Her scientific education and later literary training placed her work at the intersection of laboratory research, teaching, and creative writing.
Twiddy studied biochemistry and chemistry at Pennsylvania State University, where she also completed work in English and graduated in 1996. Penn State, founded in the nineteenth century as an agricultural college, developed into a major public research university with strong programs in the sciences and liberal arts. During her undergraduate years, Twiddy designed and synthesized a molecule that aided cancer detection and was elected president of the university's Biochemical Society.
She began doctoral study in pharmacology at Yale University before working in research laboratories at Dartmouth College Medical School. Yale's graduate tradition combines scientific research with advanced professional training, while Dartmouth's medical school, founded in the nineteenth century, is associated with medical education and biomedical research in New Hampshire.
Twiddy later earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing and poetry from Syracuse University in 2005. Syracuse's creative-writing program is part of a major private research university established in 1870 and is known for graduate instruction in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
Twiddy began her professional life in scientific research after studying biochemistry and chemistry. She worked as a laboratory researcher at Dartmouth College Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire, from 1997 to 2000. Her scientific background included the design and synthesis of a molecule connected with cancer detection.
From 2000 to 2001, she worked as a child-care worker at Children's Home in Detroit. After completing her MFA, she became a teaching artist with Partners Arts Education in Syracuse from 2005 to 2006 and taught poetry and literature through community-based educational programs.
Twiddy has taught poetry workshops and literature courses at the Downtown Writer's Center of the YMCA of Greater Syracuse, and she has taught writing and literature at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Le Moyne College. Her educational work has also included projects with Syracuse City Schools, including the U.S. Poet Laureate Project, Literacy Through Creative Expression.
Twiddy has been a visiting writing instructor at Le Moyne College since 2006. She has also written poetry for publication and performance, including a commissioned libretto for a Society for New Music opera about the nineteenth-century suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage. Her poems have appeared in literary journals and have been featured on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac.
Twiddy designed and synthesized a molecule at Pennsylvania State University that aided cancer detection, linking her undergraduate training in biochemistry and chemistry with biomedical research.
Her poetry has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations, including nominations for the poems “To Will,” “Blood, Glass, Pigeons in the Bathtub,” “Boys Leave the Farm at Dawn to Fight in the Civil War,” and “Moussaoui's Mother.”
Two of Twiddy's poems were featured on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac, bringing her work to a broad radio audience.
Twiddy participated as a poet in schools in the U.S. Poet Laureate Project, Literacy Through Creative Expression, bringing poetry instruction and creative writing activities to students in Syracuse City Schools.
(Twiddy's first full-length poetry collection, published b...)
2010Twiddy's reflections on poetry emphasize the relationship between sound, visual imagery, and perception. She has described an enduring sense of connection with nonhuman animals and suggested that all living things participate in a larger unity. These ideas recur in her interest in animal life, vulnerability, and the meeting of scientific and poetic ways of observing the world.
Twiddy has belonged to the Modern Language Association, the Penn State Alumni Association, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, the Academy of American Poets, and the Golden Key National Honor Society. These organizations connect literary scholars, writers, poets, alumni, and students through professional exchange, educational support, and recognition of academic achievement.
In an interview, Twiddy described teaching as an important source of social contact and said that interaction with other people brought a performative and imaginative dimension to her poetry. She also described a strong sense of kinship with animals and an interest in the emotional and perceptual possibilities of their presence.
Twiddy is married to Edward Ruchalski, a composer and sound artist based in Syracuse. Ruchalski has set several of her poems to music for choir and piano, and their collaborative work includes art songs and other musical projects.
