Les Epstein is a poet, playwright, opera librettist and educator. His work has appeared in journals in the United States, Philippines, India, Canada, Ireland and the UK, including Slant, Muse McMaster, The Bacopa Review, The Clinch Mountain Review and Empyrean as well as the anthologies Heat the Grease (Gnashing Teeth Publishing) and Pain & Renewal (Vita Brevis Press). He is the author of Sleep Cinematic: a Golem's Quartet (Gnashing Teeth) and Kip Divided (Finishing Line Press). As a playwright, his work has been staged by such theaters as The Belfast Maskers (Maine), Greenbriar Valley Theater (West Virginia), Stone's Throw Dinner Theater (Missouri) and the Roy Arias Studio (New York City). He contributed libretti for two operas, Barefoot (1997 premiere) and Miss Lucy (2011 premiere). Cyberwit released a collection of his short plays and libretti (Seven) in 2018. Epstein's bi-lingual collaboration with Claudia de Franko, Llorona of the River is available through Silver Birchington plays. He received undergraduate degrees in English and Theater from Otterbein College, an MA in English from Miami University (Ohio) and continued with studies in literature at New York University and in Theater Education at The Ohio State University. He completed his teacher training at Mary Baldwin College. In addition to work with theater,, opera and ballet companies from North Carolina to New York City, he spent ten seasons as Education Director and Production Coordinator for Opera/Columbus and another seven as Executive Director for the Children's Theater of Winston-Salem, before settling in as a teacher with Community High School (Roanoke) for which he has staged more than forty productions.