About Lisi

Author Lisi Harrison

Lisi Harrison is a #1 New York Times bestselling author.

In 2003, Lisi left her position as senior director of development at MTV Networks to write The Clique series (2013-2011), which sold more than eight million copies and was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than two hundred weeks. Ten titles hit #1, and foreign rights were sold in thirty-three countries. Alphas was a #1 New York Times bestseller, and Monster High was an instant bestseller. In 2013 Lisi released her YA series Pretenders and her first adult novel, The Dirty Book Club in 2017. In 2021 Lisi launched two new middle-grade seriesGirl Stuff and The Pack. Currently, she is working on a middle-grade series with New York Times bestselling author Daniel Kraus called Graveyard Girls (9.6.22).

Lisi lives in Laguna Beach, California, where she leads Drama Free Friend workshops that teach kids, and their parents, how to have healthy, drama-free friendships.

 

Twenty-Five Things You Don’t Need To Know About Me, But I’m Going To Tell You Anyway.

  1. Born in Toronto, Canada, I have lived in the United States since I was twenty and I still don’t have an American passport. Why? Because I am a horrible test taker and I’m afraid I’ll fail the citizenship test.
  2. I failed my California Driver’s license test when I moved to California in 2007. I was pregnant and cried so they let me take it again. I may or may not have cheated the second time.
  3. Despite my horrible test-taking skills, I went to McGill University, aka the Harvard of Canada.
  4. Harvard graduates don’t like when Canadians call it that.
  5. I transferred to Emerson College in Boston and graduated with a BFA in Creative Writing. No driving tests are required, just writing. I’m fine with that.
  6. After graduation, I spent 12 years working at MTV Networks in New York City. It taught me more about storytelling than college.
  7. I wrote my first two novels, “The Clique” and “Best Friends For Never” while I was working a MTV. When “Best Friends For Never” debuted at #7 on the New York Times bestseller list I left my position as Senior Director of Development and have been writing ever since.
  8. The colors for this website were inspired by this Loius Vuitton bag. I have the website. Still no bag.
  9.  “The Dirty Book Club” is my first and only adult novel to date. My parents were horrified.
  10. It was inspired by my real-life Dirty Book Club. I started the DBC when I moved to Laguna Beach in 2007 as a way to meet cool people. It worked.
  11. I sold the novel over the phone while I was on vacation in Mexico. I thank tequila for the nerve and my editor Karen for her willingness to buy novels off of drunk people.
  12. I thought transitioning from young adult novels to adult would be easy. I was wrong. It took me four years to write The Dirty Book Club. It was supposed to take one.    Lisi Harrison
  13. When I need to talk to myself in public I pretend I’m on the phone. I do this a lot.
  14. I wear gold glitter on my eyes every day.
  15. I have to lay out my clothes before I get in the shower.
  16. I was allergic to wheat way before gluten allergies were cool.
  17. I got a total knee replacement in 2017. If you’re a millennial I’ll say it was a snowboarding accident, but it’s really from arthritis and sitting too much.
  18. I taught a writing class at Top of the World elementary school. We wrote a novel called, “Guy Spies”. Best collaboration ever.
  19. I speak fluent Hebrew. Nobody cares.
  20. I hate the word, “fine.” I’d rather be a hot mess than “fine.” There’s no drama in “fine.”
  21. I am deathly afraid of puke. I will never hold your hair back, but I will help you carb load when it’s over.
  22. Though I live in a house by the beach I am happiest in a city apartment.
  23. I bring rubber gloves to dinner parties so I can do the dishes without getting grossed out.
  24. I was supposed to be on the second plane that crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11. My co-worker and I didn’t want to leave so early in the morning so we lied to our bosses and said the flight was sold out and booked the next one. We watched the towers fall from the Long Island Expressway and cried for six months after that.
  25. I am grateful every day I am here. Even when “here” sucks.