bio

2024 Elizabeth george foundation book grant recipient for memoir

finalist for the restless books prize for new immigrant writing 2021

pen america emerging voices fellow 2021 in creative nonfiction. Final reading video: watch now. (44:00-49:55)

CURRENT PROJECTS:

The HmongStory Legacy Project - 50th Anniversary Special Exhibit (2025)

Memoir (draft in progress) & novel (draft in progress)

Lisa Lee Herrick is the daughter of Hmong refugees and an award-winning Hmong-American writer, illustrator, and media producer based in California. Her writing was honored as notable essays in the Best American Essays series (2020, 2021, 2023) and Best American Food Writing 2020. She was awarded a PEN America Emerging Voices Fellowship in 2021 for creative nonfiction and paired with best-selling Hmong American writer Kao Kalia Yang for literary mentorship, and announced as a finalist for the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing in the same year. In 2024, she received a generous book grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation to further develop her memoir currently in progress.

Lisa is also the co-founder of Fresno’s LitHop literary arts festival, which she started after a decade working in journalism and public media, and now serves as Editor-at-Large for Hyphen magazine and a board of directors member for local NPR station Valley Public Radio (KVPR).

She is a regular contributor to numerous literary publications, nonprofits and government agencies serving the cultural arts, and has been interviewed or had work featured in/on PBS, NPR, FOX, ABS-CBN, The Fresno Bee, the Houston Chronicle and others. She has a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Davis, where her first published personal essay is permanently archived in the Department of English’s Prized Writing catalogue. (photo: Lisa Lee Herrick)