Author Spotlight: Lisa Teasley

This past weekend left me with a lot to report from the 6th annual LitFest Pasadena on May 20th-21st with well over 100 authors and 30 events, including formal and informal gatherings throughout the city. My time was split between covering LitFest as well as the inaugural East Los Angeles Comic Con but I'm glad I had the chance to cover both.

I always think it's the sign of a good literary event when you can genuinely discover new authors, and LitFest Pasadena delivered well in that regard for many of my reading tastes. I'll be covering many of them in the coming weeks ahead, but first up, I want to highlight the work of artist, author and world traveler Lisa Teasley who came to my attention through an act of serendipity while documenting the Tomorrow Prize! for emerging teen science fiction writers at the Pasadena Playhouse.

In no uncertain terms, Ms. Teasley cuts a very striking and dramatic figure upon entering a room, and as she prepared to give her talk as part of the panel on writers within the Black Lives Matters movement, I had a chance to take a few photos of her and her colleagues.

A Los Angeles native, she graduated from UCLA and is the author of several books including Glow In The Dark, Heat Signature, and Dive, each of which has received substantial acclaim as they've come out. Her debut, Glow In The Dark, a collection of short stories, won both a Gold Pen Award and a Pacificus Literary Foundation award for fiction in 2002. Her awards also include the May Merrill Miller and National Society of Arts & Letters award in the Short Story category.

Her current forte is writing tales which have elements of crime, mystery, and passion, and they have been consistently praised for their interesting characters and scenarios.

Her work also includes writing and hosting the BBC Television documentary, High School Prom. 

She was a member of the former art collective HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN, which debuted the film “Good Stock on the Dimension Floor” at the Whitney Biennial 2014. On top of all that, Lisa Teasley is a fiction editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books. Her travels have taken her to Indonesia, China, Alaska, and points in between, with many more sure to come in the years ahead.

This year, Lisa Teasley was presenting with her panelists on Writing in the Times of Black Lives Matter & Resistance to Trumpism in the Pasadena Playhouse – Friendship Room (off courtyard) The aim was to gather black writers to discuss what it means to write during the time of Black Lives Matter and Trump. Her scheduled co-panelists included Gar Anthony Haywood, Dana Johnson (Not Quite Dark), James Farr, and Jervey Tervalon (Monster’s Chef)

You can find Lisa Teasley on social media such as Twitter: @TheLisaTeasley and on Instagram at @LisaTeas. And of course she maintains her website at http://LisaTeasley.Com. Be sure to check her out!