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Lisa Knopp is the author of eight books of creative nonfiction.
Ravelings: Essays on Love, Loss, and Wonder, is forthcoming from the University
of Nebraska Press in March of 2026. Subjects of some of the essays include:
finding equilibrium in her professional life by observing the exquisitely
balanced rock cairns created by a wildly unbalanced former admirer; being
awakened to the common magic around her through two chance encounters with a
magician in training; gaining humility and empowerment as an unpartnered,
60-year old woman in a ball room dance class filled with young couples; finding
the key to momentarily slowing the passage of time while delighting in showers
of confetti; exploring hunger and fullness through stories about different types
of eating (ethical, disordered, mindful); comprehending her experiences with
more nuance and precision through her investigations into words -- those we
possess; those we’ve lost; those we need but don’t have; those she created to
fill the gaps.
Lisa's first five books are collections of essays about Midwestern nature and
places. With her sixth book, Bread: A Memoir of Hunger (2016), she departed from
nature and place-based writing to address the little-discussed phenomenon of
eating disorders and disordered eating among older women. Through research and
personal story, she explores the nature of hunger, desire, yearning,
nourishment, sustenance, fulfillment, and contentment. Lisa's seventh book, From
Your Friend, Carey Dean: Letters from Nebraska’s Death Row (2022), is a
memoir/biography about her 23-year friendship with Carey Dean Moore, who’d
murdered two Omaha cab drivers in 1979 and for which he was executed by lethal
injection in 2018
Lisa’s essays have appeared in many of the best publications, including
Shenandoah, Gettysburg Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Missouri Review,
Creative Nonfiction, Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, Georgia Review, Brevity, and
Seneca Review. Seven of her essays have received notable essay citations in the
Best American Essays series. She is the recipient of two literature fellowships
from the Nebraska Arts Council and numerous state, national, and international
writing awards.
Lisa was born and raised in Burlington, Iowa, a Mississippi River town. She was
educated at Iowa Wesleyan College, Western Illinois University, and the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Since 2005, she’s been a professor of English at
the University of Nebraska-Omaha where she teaches courses in creative
nonfiction. She’s a reiki practitioner, and she enjoys mentoring children
through various organizations. Lisa has a grown son and daughter. She lives in
Lincoln, Nebraska.
To schedule a reading, book club visit, or interview, please contact her through her website or her University of Nebraska-Omaha email server.
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