Three Walled World

This eloquent literary collection from Ellery Chapshaw reflects on her time as Natalie Snyder in the long-running soap opera As the World Turns, uncovering a different, darker reality behind the camera through poems and personal essays.

Within the soundstage of a Brooklyn television studio on E 14th St., a young girl believes her acting career is all bright lights and playing dress up, but her messy reality is in stark juxtaposition to the glittering world of the tv cameras. Capshaw takes an unflinching look at growing up inside the three walls where life begins, ends, and lingers for the cameras, while real life with all its troubles keeps on going.
Confronted with the challenges of fitting in, defining identity, and enduring the tragic loss of her real life father, Three Walled World unravels the ghosts that remain—those around us and the ones within.

Ellery Capshaw, a Connecticut native with an MFA in Creative Writing, writes poetry that shifts between grief and beauty, light and shadow. Three Walled World is her debut collection and her work as been published both online and in print. Her work digs into the messy, magical corners of life—capturing the heartbreak that makes us human. Outside of writing, she loves to explore near and far, always finding a metaphor along the way. Follow along on her Instagram @ell_caps.