Lisa VanAuken earned her BA in English from McDaniel College and her MFA in Fiction from Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she was the 2007-2008 assistant editor of The Literary Review; An International Journal of Contemporary Writing. Her pseudonymous first women’s fiction novel Simple Wishes will be published in 2009 by Grand Central: the book tells the story of a woman whose friendship with a Korean-American grandmother forces her to reevaluate memories of her own family. Lisa’s writings appear in magazines such as Fourth Genre, Many Mountains Moving, The Literary Review (TLRweb), Sou’wester, Flyway, Southeast Review, CICADA, Baltimore’s Citypaper, Nerve Cowboy, Mobuis; The Journal for Social Change, and other venues. She was recently nominated for inclusion in Best New American Writing (2010). Prior to earning her MFA, she worked in New York at the Creative Media Agency, now known as Folio Literary Management.

She is currently at work on an opera based on Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth with composer Garth Baxter.

Lisa is often available for manuscript consultation. She specializes in literary, mainstream, and any forms of fiction geared toward female audiences. For more information, please contact lisavanauken (@) yahoo.com.