Elisa Stancil Levine

Author & Decorative Artist

Elisa Stancil Levine spent her childhood in a canyon on the American River, upstream from the site of the California gold rush. She left school at sixteen and as a single mother in Sacramento earned a degree in library science and studied creative writing. Working with partners she remodeled sixteen historic houses and was home and garden editor and feature writer for Sacramento Magazine. At thirty-six she founded Stancil Studios, an award winning, nationwide decorative finishes company in San Francisco.

Levine’s memoir shares the story of “the making of a maker” and takes place in Northern California, Manhattan and Paris. When Elisa is not writing, traveling or consulting on color and pattern she and her husband spend hours immersed in nature, running and riding horseback on Sonoma Mountain.

This or Something Better is Levine’s second book. Her essays have recently appeared in Entropy Magazine, Stirring: a Literary Review, The Penmen Review, andThe Writer’s Workshop Review.A third book is in the works.