Lisa Knopp was born and raised in Burlington, Iowa. She received her education at Iowa Wesleyan College, Western Illinois University, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Knopp is the author of four collections of essays, Interior Places, The Nature of Home, Flight Dreams: A Life in the Midwestern Landscape, and Field of Vision, each of which explores the concepts of place, home, nature, and spirituality. Her essays have appeared in many of the best publications, including Shenandoah, Gettysburg Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Missouri Review, Connecticut Review, Creative Nonfiction, Iowa Review, and Northwest Review. Five of her essays have received Notable Essay citations in the Best American Essays series. Currently, she’s working on a collection of essays called Three Rivers: Journeys and Junctures, about the Mississippi, Missouri, and Platte Rivers.
Knopp teaches creative nonfiction at the University of Nebraska - Omaha, and is visiting faculty in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, near her son and daughter.