Life & Work with Lisa Teasley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Teasley.

Hi Lisa, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I knew from the time I was six years old that I wanted to be in conversation with the world as a storyteller. This came with checking out books from my school and neighborhood libraries and being amazed by the fact that I could be inside of anyone’s head and experience any kind of situation while on a voyage to any part of the globe between the pages of a book. It was a source of endless fascination and intimacy to me. From first grade on, I wrote on paper, folding them in half and stapling the pages together to make little books. By the end of my sophomore year at UCLA, I won an award my writing professor had submitted my work for without telling me, and I began getting acceptances here and there for my stories and poems from literary magazines. My first book, the story collection Glow in the Dark, came out in 2002 and won awards, and my novels Dive and Heat Signature followed with critical acclaim. My new story collection FLUID comes out this September. Also, I should mention that as a kid, I was illustrating my stapled-together books. I have always been drawing and painting– my first commission for a painting was by the elementary school principal when I was 10 years old. I have tremendous regard and appreciation for teachers who take the time to encourage their students, as the mentoring I’ve received has meant the world. I have maintained a visual art practice all of these years, exhibiting and selling paintings alongside my writing career.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The New York book publishing world was still more than just tough back in the ’90s for a Black writer from Los Angeles. A William Morris agent approached me for representation back then and sent my book to every publisher, who in far less than kind words asked, How are they supposed to market a Black female writer who is not only writing about non-stereotypical Black characters but also including characters of different races and cultures? It was as if they had no ideas about who Black people could be outside of 1970s Blaxploitation films in the absurd examples they gave as to what I should be writing about. But once Zadie Smith was published in 2000, the book market was able to make a little more sense of me by 2002.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My new book FLUID, publishing this September on Cune Press and available for pre-order on all platforms wherever books are sold, features stories set in L.A., New York, North Carolina, Nevada, Northern England, and Namibia, with a piercing eye on vastly different kinds of people caught up in the challenging situations we find ourselves in not only today but throughout history and on into the future. I write about what it means to be human.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
A writer starting out needs to develop a thick skin in response to all of the rejections that will come when submitting their work. You can ask any successful writer how many rejections they have received and it would well more than quadruple the acceptances. The same goes for a visual artist. A beginning writer should be reading many writers’ works to understand and appreciate the art and the craft of writing, as well as doing the time and committing to sitting down in front of the blank page. An artist should be looking at the art in the streets, going to see shows at galleries, museums, cultural centers, and anywhere else they are inspired and drawn to, as well as reaching out to other artists and becoming part of a community. It’s difficult to create in a complete vacuum. And then, in response to some of the criticism and suggestions received, a writer and artist has to feel deeply into whether it is actually constructive or not. Because ultimately, the best advice for any endeavor is: To thine own self be true.

Contact Info:

• Website: lisateasley.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisateas/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.teasley.9/
• Linkedin: https://linktr.ee/lisateasley
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelisateasley

Image Credits
Lisa Teasley portrait by Irwin Miller