After high school Nelke attended Russell Sage College in Troy, New York for a time, before studying speech arts at the American University in Washington, D.C., where she graduated in 1970.

[3] In 1976, Nelke was the first playwright to be awarded the Lucy Martin Donnelly Fellowship from Bryn Mawr College[2] for her Byron play The Keeper, which was produced by the Philadelphia Theatre Company in their 1976-1977 season and directed by Robert Hedley.

[4][5] The Fellowship awarded Nelke with a cash grant, and an invitation to conduct workshops with Bryn Mawr and Haverford College students with regards to the production of her play during the academic year.

[2] In 1982, The Keeper was produced at the Philadelphia Drama Guild and starred Dwight Schultz as Lord Byron, with Patricia Elliott as his sister Augusta, Valerie Mahaffey as his wife Annabella, and Richard Frank as his friend John Cam Hobhouse.

[6] Nelke's second play, a post World War I love story called Casualties, made its debut at In the Works, Amherst MA (André Bishop Artistic Director).