Lisa Ko

Lisa Ko is an author, who is widely known for the award-winning novel, The Leavers. The Leavers emerged the winner during the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize. Lisa Ko was born and raised in New York City. Ko’s parents are of Chines descent and had immigrated from the Philippines. Ko began penning down stories in her journal at the tender age of 5. However, despite penning down stories at five years old, Ko had to wait until high school, when she began sharing her work. Most of her teachers were peased with her work and encouraged Lisa Ko to continue with her dreams. When she completed her high school education, Lisa Ko was then admitted to Wesleyan University, where she was awarded a bachelor’s degree in English. After graduating from Wesleyan University, she began working at Hyphen Magazine, where she served as an editor.