Elena Karina Byrne was born on September 10, 1959, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother was a painter, and her father was a gifted craftsman who taught drawing, two influences that gave Byrne an early appreciation for art and for the visual. In fact, Byrne originally thought that she would be an artist, too. But when she was fourteen, she discovered poetry and fell in love with the visual imagery created by words. After graduating from Brentwood High School, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, during which time she also took classes at Harvard and Wheelock College. She was accepted to New York University’s graduate program but decided to take a year off to go to England to write, paint, and teach. In Bath, England, she met Peter Byrne, singer and songwriter in the British pop band Naked Eyes, and the two were married. For the next two decades, Byrne taught writing and English to children, teens, and adults in England and California and submitted her poetry, including “In Particular,” to various journals.

Byrne has been active in the poetry world and still teaches poetry to children and adults. In addition, she served for twelve years as the full-time regional director of the Poetry Society of America in Los Angeles and has served as poetry consultant for the Getty Research Institute. Since 1991, Byrne has been program director and moderator for Share Our Strength’s annual readings for hunger relief and also serves as consultant and poetry moderator for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Byrne, during National Poetry Month, conducts live, guerilla-style poetry readings on Metropolitan Transit Authority metro cars and also works with the MTA to place poetry placards on over three thousand buses, bringing poetry to those on their daily commute.