Lisa Knopp

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.