Coming in March 2026
“Lisa Knopp’s essays invite us to notice the things of daily life while pointing us to what shimmers just beyond our line of vision. Knopp is clear-eyed and reverent as she harnesses examples from art and etymology, memory studies and theology, to explore loss, aging, and the rich layers of human appetite. These essays embody the holy work of paying attention, of forging connection, and of letting go. A luminous, tender collection by a master of the form.”—Sonja Livingston, author of The Virgin of Prince Street
​
“You want to go deep into Lisa Knopp’s essays. They’re not meant for a quick read. Detail is all. Like the impressionists she refers to, each one is itself, often without need for a story. Yet the rich story of her life runs through like a stream—the death of a beloved cat, the death of parents, eating doves, the comfort of a giant sweet potato, consulting the almanac, finding a lost car. These beautifully written essays are a record of a life lived with sensitivity and wisdom. Her essay ‘Still Life with Peaches’ is a map for how to see, how to find words for close-seeing. I couldn’t put this book down.”—Fleda Brown, author of The End of the Clockwork Universe
​
“Ravelings beautifully knits together the complexities of the head, the entanglements of the heart, and the all-too-human hungers that hit us right in the gut. These essays delve into the rich contradictions of singleness and connection, balance and chance, fullness and lack—always with a sense of wonder and intellectual grace. Thoughtful, poignant, and beautifully written, this is a book I will return to again and again.”—Randon Billings Noble, author of Be with Me Always: Essays
​
“In this collection of virtuoso essays, Lisa Knopp puzzles and ravels topics ranging from encountering her mother’s dead body to dancing with a broom. The lowly sweet potato, the exalted peach, the art of Renoir and Lassnig, all warrant her probing consideration. The essay on a familiar feeling with the little-known name of velleity is one of many startling discoveries lifted from the ordinary. With every deep dive into these streams of her life, we vibrate like a tuning fork, resonating and enriching our understanding of the intricate balances and delicious contradictions of everyday life.”—Pamela Carter Joern, author of At the Corner of Past and Future: A Collection of Life Stories
Lisa's newest book, Ravelings: Essays on Love, Loss, and Wonder, is forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press in March of 2026.
Subjects of a some of the essays include: finding equilibrium in her professional life by observing the exquisitely balanced rock cairns created by a wildly imbalanced 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 my 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 most recently published book, From Your Friend, Carey Dean: Letters from Nebraska’s Death Row (2022), is a memoir/biography. In 1995, when Lisa visited Nebraska’s death row with other death penalty abolitionists, she became acquainted with one of the inmates. For the next 23 years, through visits, phone calls, and letters, a remarkable, platonic friendship flourished between Lisa, an English professor, and Carey Dean Moore, who’d murdered two Omaha cab drivers in 1979 and for which he was executed by lethal injection in 2018. From Your Friend, Carey Dean, tells two other stories, as well. One is that of a broken correctional system (Nebraska’s prisons are overcrowded, understaffed, and underfunded, and excessive in their use of solitary confinement), and what it’s like to be incarcerated there, which Carey frequently spoke and wrote about. The other is the story of how a double murderer was transformed and nourished by his faith in God’s promises. Though Carey and Lisa were different types of Christians (he was a Biblical literalist and an evangelical; she is a Biblical contextualist with progressive leanings), they shared an abiding faith in God’s love and grace.
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, including food writing, travel writing, and a seminar in experimental forms. She’s a certified Reiki practitioner, and she enjoys mentoring children and adults at Heartland Big Brothers Big Sisters, Lincoln Literacy, and TeamMates Mentoring Program. Lisa lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with her two cats, Morwenna and Janko.
WGVU Morning Show Interview
From Your Friend, Carey Dean: Letters from Nebraska's Death Row, First Place, Nebraska Book Awards 2023, Nonfiction (Fellowship Category). Nebraska Center for the Book. Lincoln, Nebraska.
From Your Friend, Carey Dean: Letters from Nebraska's Death Row. First Place, Nebraska Book Awards, Nonfiction (Fellowship Category), 2023.
The Nature of Home shortlisted for 2021 One Book One Nebraska, Nebraska Center for the Book .
“Death Watch.” First prize in the 2020 Curt Johnson Prose Awards Contest, december magazine
Finalist, “From Your Friend, Carey Dean: Letters from Nebraska’s Death Row” River Teeth 2020 Book Prize (one winner, five finalists).
Finalist, “From Your Friend, Carey Dean,” 2018 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize, Missouri Review.
“Leaving the Body.” First Prize, 2018 “Leaving” writing contest, Hospital Drive (University Virginia School of Medicine).
Bread: A Memoir of Hunger. Winner of a 2018 CHOICE award (Journal of the American Library Association).
Bread: A Memoir of Hunger. First Place, Nebraska Book Awards 2017, Nonfiction Essay category. Nebraska Center for the Book.
Three-week residency, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, Nebraska, January 2015.
Distinguished Artist Fellowships Nebraska Arts Council, $2,500 award in 2015 and $2,000 in 2001.
What the River Carries: Encounters with the Mississippi, Missouri, and the Platte, First Place, Nebraska Book Awards 2013, Nonfiction Essay. Nebraska Center for the Book.
What the River Carries: Encounters with the Mississippi, Missouri, and the Platte, Tied for Second Place, ASLE (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) 2013 Environmental Creative Writing Book Award.
Notable Essay citations in Best American Essays series -
“Still Life with Peaches.” Georgia Review (Spring 2014)
“No Other River.” Iowa Review (Fall 2009)
“Nine-mile Prairie.” Michigan Quarterly Review (Summer 2007)
“Household Words.” Michigan Quarterly Review (Fall 2001)
“My Place of Many Times.” Connecticut Review (Fall 2000)
“Summer Reading.” Missouri Review (Fall 1993)
“Pheasant Country.” Northwest Review (Summer 1990)
