I Am the Daughter, originally published in 1981, is a volume of poetry that rings with the passion, anger, and longing for connection of the now legendary Second Wave of the women's movement. These are poems of lost women, of divorce and motherhood, of the strength of friendships among women and the fantasy of revolution, and of finding love again. Elizabeth Zelvin was the recipient of a CAPS Award from the New York State Council on the Arts in 1983.
Gifts and Secrets, first published in 1999, is a collection by a poet at midlife who is coming into her full power through her work as a therapist, her rich relationships with husband, son, family, and friends, her meditative hours in the garden and at the beach, and the experience, both universal and keenly particular and detailed, of the aging and death of her parents. The author of I Am the Daughter has matured, and her craft is both deeper and more simple in its use of plain language to express emotions ranging from grief to compassion to transcendent joy.