Background
Elias-Bursac, Ellen was born on July 27, 1952, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Daughter of Peter and Marjorie (Forbes) Elias.
Elias-Bursac, Ellen was born on July 27, 1952, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Daughter of Peter and Marjorie (Forbes) Elias.
Elias-Bursać studied at the Commonwealth School in Boston, graduating in 1970. She attended Macalester College, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian literature and language in 1974. During her undergraduate studies, she attended a study abroad program in Yugoslavia.
She worked as a freelance translator and studied towards a Master"s degree at the University of Zagreb. In 1999, she received a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Zagreb in philology. Her dissertation was titled Augustina-Tina Ujevića prijevodi iz anglo-američke književnosti: komparativno/kontrastivna lingvo-stilistička analiza.
Her parents were Peter Elias and Marjorie Forbes. She has two brothers. Elias-Bursać worked as a language preceptor in the Slavic department of Harvard University for 10 years.
In 2005, she joined the English Translation Unit of the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. Since leaving the ICTY she has been working as a freelance translator, an independent scholar, and a contributing editor to Asymptote Journal. She is president of the American Literary Translators Association.
Member Society Literature Translators of Yugoslavia, Community of Freelance Artists of Croatia, ATA, ALTA.
Married Milorad Bursac, February 23, 1974. Children: Sara, Rachel.