About

Lisa Richter (she/her) is an award-winning poet, writer, teacher, and editor. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, including Closer to Where We Began (Tightrope Books, 2017) and Nautilus and Bone (Frontenac House, October 2020), winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry (US), the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, the Alberta Book Publishing Association’s Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry, and longlisted for the Raymond Souster Award. Her poetry has been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, won first place in the CV2 Magazine Two-Day Poem Contest, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, a National Magazine Award and the Best of the Net. Her third book, Sublunary (spring 2026), now available with University of Alberta Press, was included in 49th Shelf’s Most Anticipated Spring 2026 Poetry Preview.

An alumni of the Banff Centre for the Arts and Sage Hill Writing Experience, Lisa’s work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Access Copyright Foundation. Her poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Best Canadian Poetry 2024, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, The Goose: A Journal of Arts, Environment and Culture in Canada, Literary Review of Canada, EXILE Quarterly, The Ex-Puritan, and elsewhere.

A proud member of the Writers Union of Canada and the League of Canadian Poets, Lisa has taught creative writing and mentored emerging writers with the Saskatchewan Writers Guild as the Spring 2026 Virtual Writer in Residence, Poetry in Voice, the Writers Collective of Canada, Sage Hill Summer Writing Experience, and the University of Guelph-Humber. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Adult Education from Brock University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph.

She lives in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada, the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples.