Lisa Teasley

Lisa Teasley is an American writer and artist. Her first book, the story collection Glow in the Dark won the Gold Pen awards. Her second and third books, the novels Dive (2004) and Heat Signature (2006), address gender, race, intercultural and justice issues. Teasley’s fourth book is the story collection Fluid (2023). She is the writer and presenter of the BBC television documentary “High School Prom” (2006), and the librettist of the opera The Passion of Nell, for Long Beach Opera, 2026. She was the Senior Editor, Fiction for the Los Angeles Review of Books from 2016-2021. She lives in Los Angeles and Mendocino.

Early life and education

Lisa Teasley was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, to Larkin Teasley and Violet Teasley. Her father was African-American and former CEO of the largest black-owned insurance company Golden State Mutual in the U.S., her mother was Panamanian and an accessories designer. Teasley studied English literature and Creative Writing at UCLA. She studied art on summer scholarship at Otis/Parsons. Her first job was a paid internship with the Los Angeles Times, and then she worked as a researcher for Forbes magazine.

Visual art Lisa Teasley is also a visual artist. As a painter, she has had a one-woman show at the Watts Towers Art Center, with John Outterbridge as director and curator. Her group shows include Brockman Gallery, Dive, Cloth, 2004, Bloomsbury Glow in the Dark, paperback, 2006, Bloomsbury

Anthologies

Short stories Flash Fiction America, WW Norton, 2023 The Passenger: California, Europa Editions and Iperborea, 2022 Joyland, Retro Volume 1, No. 3, 2013 Women on the Edge, Toby Press, 2005 Shaking the Tree, Norton, 2003 Brown Sugar 4, published by Simon & Schuster, 2005 Brown Sugar 3, Simon & Schuster, 2004 Brown Sugar 1, Atria, 2001 Step Into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature, Wiley, 2000 In The Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers, Harlem River Press, 2000

Essays Because I Said So, HarperCollins, 2005 An Ear to the Ground, Cune Press, 1997

Poetry Beyond the Frontier, Black Classic Press, 2002

Awards and honors Gold Pen 2002 Pacificus Foundation 2002

Literary Journals

Alta Journal

Issue 28, Summer 2024, "Wendy Carmel, Carmel Wendy"

Black Clock

Issue 5, Spring Summer 2006, “Modus Operandi”; Issue 7, Spring Summer 2007 “Late Blooming; Issue 10, Spring Summer 2009, “Joie de Vivre”; Issue 12, Spring Summer 2010, “Beach Volleyball is Church”; Issue 13, Fall/Winter 2010, “Mixed Tape” greatest hits issue “Joie de Vivre”; Issue 21, Spring Summer 2016, “Bang” (The Elephant Talker)

Kweli Journal

Fall 2022, "Glossolalia"

The Markaz Review

Issue 22, June 2022, “Death is Beautiful”

Parabola Magazine

Fire Issue, 2021, "Lost and Found in the Fire" Belonging Issue, 2022, "The Only Black Person in the Room" Reality Issue, 2024, "A Brief Look at the Infinite" The Way of Magic Issue, 2024, "Curses"

Red Canary Magazine

Winter 2023, "The Numerologist"

Zyzzyva

Issue 99, 2013, “Full Circle”