Lidia Yuknavitch

Bestselling Author (The Small Backs of Children),  2016 Oregon Book Award’s Ken Kesey Award for Fiction, Educator

Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of the new novel The Book of Joan, as well as the National Bestselling novel The Small Backs of Children, winner of the 2016 Oregon Book Award’s Ken Kesey Award for Fiction and the Reader’s Choice Award.

She is also the author of the novel Dora: A Headcase, and three books of short stories. Her widely acclaimed memoir The Chronology of Water was a finalist for a PEN Center USA award for creative nonfiction and winner of a PNBA Award and the Oregon Book Award Reader’s Choice.

Her TED Talk, The Beauty of Being a Misfit, is approaching 2 million views, and she has a forthcoming book on the topic, The Misfit Manifesto, fall 2017.

Lidia founded the workshop series Corporeal Writing in Portland Oregon, where she also teaches Women’s Studies, Film Studies, Writing, and Literature.

She received her doctorate in Literature from the University of Oregon.

She lives in Oregon with her husband Andy Mingo and their renaissance man son, Miles. She is a very good swimmer.