Lisa Halliday
Lisa Halliday is a novelist, essayist, and short-story writer whose works explore themes of love and loss, identity and identity politics, and lives lived in exile. She is best known for her debut novel, Asymmetry (2018)--which earned her the Lambda Literary Award for fiction and was long-listed for the National Book Award--and its sequel, The Lines We Draw (2021).
Halliday grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. After living in Tokyo for several years, she moved to New York City for graduate school at Stanford University. There, she received her MFA in creative writing in 2007.
Halliday’s debut novel, Asymmetry, uses multiple narratives to explore the stories of two characters: Alice, a young editor-in-training, and Ezra, a famous, older, Jewish novelist. As the two characters develop an unconventional relationship, Halliday investigates how power dynamics and privilege affect how people see and treat one another. Along the way, she also explores the often-overlooked consequences of war, displacement, and exile thorough Ezra’s experiences as a refugee of the Holocaust.
Her short story collection Grand Union (2019) features a wide range of characters and characters’ perspectives--from Korean-American immigrants to Libyan refugees. She focuses on the struggles faced by non-white immigrants in America, and uses a distinct pattern of repetition that blurs the boundaries between past and present, real and imagined.
Halliday's 2021 novel The Lines We Draw is her second novel. Like Asymmetry, it follows two distinct characters: Ally, a young private-school student who struggles with Alzheimer’s diagnosis and grappling with loss, and Jack, an older African-American man whose life is upended by loss and grief. Their stories intertwine as they explore the ways that grief, identity, and prejudice intersect.
Halliday’s writing captures the complexities of life with a vibrant, honest voice that resonates with readers. Her work often explores how power dynamics and societal divisions shape the lives of her characters. Etched with compassion and empathy, her stories capture intimate, often raw emotion and reveal heart-wrenching truth about human resilience and fragility.
Halliday has also written extensively on topics such as politics, culture, literature, and race. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Nation. She has also held fellowships and residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center, the Cullman Center, and the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop.
Halliday’s masterful writing has established her as a powerful voice in contemporary literature. As she continues to write and explore the intricacies of life and relationships, she only continues to strengthen her place in the world of letters.
