Elisa New

Elisa New (born 1958) is an American academic. She was a professor of Harvard University from 1999 to 2019, and founded Poetry in America, a nonprofit PBS series that has received considerable controversy for its ties to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Early life and education She was born Jewish in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Maryland. New's father was an engineer and computer scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and her mother worked as a party planner.

Career

Academic career In 1989, New joined the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania.

From 2019-2025, New was the director of the Educational Media Innovation Studio at Arizona State University. In 2025, New was fired by ASU as a result of her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Poetry in America New is the creator and host of Poetry in America, a public television series which premiered in 2018. The show (and associated nonprofit, Verse Video Education), was funded in part by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In 2016, Epstein donated $110,000 to spearhead the project. He also coordinated interviews with guests (including Woody Allen), and gave New creative input. New kept Epstein's involvement a secret from most of her staff.

In 2022, the show's presenting station, WGBH, cut ties with Poetry in America after learning of Epstein's initial financial contribution to the show. Poetry in America then moved to Arizona PBS for its fourth season.

In 2025, following evidence of Epstein's continued financial and creative involvement Poetry in America through 2019, PBS announced that it would stop distributing the show entirely, canceling its fifth season, and removing all prior seasons from its platforms. The correspondence revealed that Epstein planned to donate $500,000 to New's Poetry in America. According to the spokesperson, the group later made a contribution "exceeding the amount received, to a group working against sex trafficking".

Personal life She had three daughters with her first husband, Fred David Levine, who died in 2013. Before moving to Boston, Massachusetts, the family resided in Miami, Florida. New and Summers flew with Ghislaine Maxwell to Epstein's private island during their honeymoon.

Books