Quinn Eli received his M.A. in fiction writing in 1993. His thesis manuscript was titled Flight. He is founder of the Samira Company. His plays include "My Name is Bess," which received top honors in the 2006 Trustus Playwrights' Festival; "Analawn," commissioned by People's Light and Theatre; "Tea for the Fever," which was a finalist for the Lark Play Development Center's 2006 Playwrights' Week; and "Hot Black/Asian Action," a satire about sexual and racial stereotypes that premiered at the 2006 New York International Fringe Festival. The two-time recipient of Fellowships in Literature from the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, Eli has published fiction and essays in Essence, New York Newsday, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and other publications. He edited the collection African-American Wisdom (Running Press, 1996) and Many Strong and Beautiful Voices (Running Press, 1997), an anthology of quotations and proverbs that won the Outstanding Book of 1998 by the New York Public Library. His most recent book, Homecoming: The Story of African American Farmers (Beacon Press, 2000), is a companion volume to the PBS film. He currently teaches at Community College of Philadelphia.