Zeb Appel is the winner of the CT Press Club 2019-20 first place award for her debut novel, “Good Luck and a Benevolent God” and a finalist in the 2019 National Federation of Press Women.

Zeb (Elizabeth) Appel is a recognized playwright, poet and essayist and fond of publishing under various pen names. She enjoyed a career in business while an adjunct English professor at two Connecticut universities. Zeb is a member of the Dramatist Guild, author associations and an enthusiastic presenter on craft and publishing. She resides in Bethany Connecticut with her family.

Her poetry chapbook, Going Up by E.A. Appel (2017) features selections from publication in small press and little magazines.

Her debut contemporary literary novel, Good Luck and a Benevolent God uses the linked-short story device (similar to Olive Kittridge by Elizabeth Strout) to tell the unusual life of Mandy Flanagan and the assortment of people she loved. Kirkus says it is, “A well-told…wide-ranging tale. Appel writes in the natural prose of raconteur, rising occasionally to the level of lyricism.”

The story begins after her death in 1983 Wallingford Connecticut as the mourners arrive for her funeral and a mysterious man is caught taking photos of Mandy in her coffin. Secrets are revealed about her Boston family in 1920’s, her marriage, divorce and how she survived as a woman alone in New York City through the Depression.

Her plays have been performed across the country including notable and award winning: “Mischief at the Mermaid Tavern,” (short feminist comedy about Shakespeare), “Drugs, War and Nine” (short drama about New Haven May Day 1969), and “They Have to Let You In” (full-length dramedy about a ‘family’ in state-supported housing).