Lisa Borders is a young fiction writer (early 30s) who has already
published many short stories and received numerous awards and grants for
her writing. Most recently she was awarded a residency at Hedgebrook, a
writing colony/retreat for women writers in Langley, WA. Although she has
an MA in Creative Writing from Temple University, her undergraduate degree
is in biology, and she works as a cytotechnologist while spending most of
her off-hours writing and applying for grants.
Lisa's writing often explores the dichotomy of the rational versus the
irrational, of logic pitted against emotion, and as such reflects the split
between her life as a clinical scientist and her writing life. As someone
who works to support her writing, Lisa has found the pursuit of grants and
residencies to be an effective way to "buy" herself writing time. She can
offer students a pragmatic perspective on writing in the "real world."
More Biographical Information on Borders:
Lisa Borders has published short stories in various magazines including
Iowa
Woman, Agassiz Review, Snake Nation Review, Black Warrior Review, and Painted
Bride Quarterly (where her story "Peace" won first place in the annual
fiction contest selected by Denise Gess). In addition to the upcoming
residency at Hedgebrook, her awards include a Pennsylvania Council on the
Arts fellowship in fiction (1995); The Open Voice Fiction Award from the
Writer's Voice of the West Side YMCA in NYC, chosen by Pablo Medina (1996);
Discipline Winner in Fiction, the Pew Fellowships in the Arts (1995);
Semi-finalist for fellowship in fiction, the Heekin Group Foundation (1996);
Honorable Mention for Fiction, the Leeway Foundation Grants (1995). In
addition to her work at Temple University, Lisa has studied fiction at the
Bennington Writing Workshops (1993).
She is currently working on Cloudcuckooland, a novel in progress.
