From Fisher’s First Female Class to Fiction Author: ’76 Alumna Elizabeth Dollard Bysiek

Elizabeth Dollard Bysiek, also known by her pen name “Elizabeth St. Michel,” was a member of the first female class to live on Fisher’s campus in 1976. At Fisher, she majored in business and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in commerce. Today, she is the successful author of nine historical romance novels. Her most recent book, On Prevailing Winds, was published in 2022.

Bysiek has been writing for over three decades, but she has been telling stories long before she ever picked up a pen. “We’d go up on my friends’ porch and they’d say, ‘tell me a story,’ so I always had the title of storyteller,” Bysiek said. “Now, you can be a storyteller, but to become a writer, that’s different.”

Coming up with a pen name was important to Bysiek in ensuring that she kept her personal and professional life separate. After much thought, she used her affinity for St. Michael the Archangel, who she likes to think is guiding her writing. Paired with her first name, she created a French, female version, becoming “St. Michel.”

Bysiek credits her writing inspiration to her favorite professor, Father Charles Lavery, Fisher’s second president and for whom Lavery Library is named, who “made literature come alive.” Throughout her career as a writer, she traces back to her days at Fisher and uses the traits of her peers to develop the characters in her books. “To diminish the drone of supply and demand curves, I wove delightful stories of my academic companions,” she said. “The long-haired Italian boy with a myriad of flamboyant tattoos became an unsavory pirate. The non-traditional scholar dressed in a three-piece suit became an automobile magnate. If my classmates read my books, their archetypal character will pop out, and they will know who they are.”

Bysiek has no time to put up with people who scoff at the romance genre or the women who indulge in it. “Women of today are more sophisticated, technologically and mathematically oriented, work in scientific fields…yet when they sit back and put their feet up, they want romance. I provide that entertainment for them,” said Bysiek.

While her love for writing came later on, Bysiek always had a passion for history. In order to create a historical romance story, Bysiek starts with a timeline of when her story will take place. From there emerges her complex characters, plot points, twists, and sometimes even “delightful detours,” as she describes. Bysiek finds herself building real connections with the characters she develops, prompting her to create serial books.

“I’m old-fashioned, I like the differences between the sexes, although I’m all for equality,” she said. “My male characters are not Neanderthals, nor are they Prince Charmings. They have flaws–prideful, reckless, stubborn–yet they’re vulnerable. My female characters reflect the incredible bravery and persistent stamina of women in their daily lives. We are the structure that supports the people we love–we raise our children, take care of our elderly, we have jobs, and still maintain homes.”

“When I craft my stories, my goal is for my readers to laugh, to cry, to feel a myriad of sorrows, but in the end, to be smiling because I believe in happy endings,” she added.

While Bysiek’s historical romance stories didn't start until later in her life, her personal story of becoming a visionary-turned-writer began at Fisher. “My advice to current St. John Fisher University students is to never give up, and to be ashamed to find yourself idle,” she said. “If someone closes a door, a window opens. Keep pushing forward … enjoy each moment of life’s journey, and know that any education or experience is never wasted–all are endeavors to serve as a bridge to something else.”

Bysiek praises the loyalty from her thousands of readers from all over the world, and remains open to their suggestions for future stories. She has won several literary awards, including the American Fiction Award, Virginia’s Holt Medallion, the Hemingway Book Award, and was an Amazon Breakthrough Novel quarter-finalist.

This article was written by Brooke Eastman, a senior media and communication major. Eastman currently serves as a Public Relations Writing Intern with the Marketing and Communications department at Fisher for the fall 2024 semester.