It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Lisa Lenard-Cook. Lisa was a writer, writing coach, editor and co-founder of the literary journal bosque. She delighted everyone who came into contact with her and we were privileged to have Lisa as one of our presenters at the 2015 Southwest Festival of the Written Word.
When Lisa was 8 years old, she told her mother her ambitions in life: to be a writer who lived in the country with thirteen dogs. Two out of three ain’t bad. She never had more than “six or seven” dogs at one time, according to her husband, Bob!
Lisa made her name with the 2003 novel Dissonance, which won significant recognition including the Jim Sagel/Red Crane Books Award for the Novel, and a place on the short-list for the PEN Southwest Book Award. She followed it up with Coyote Morning, which also received critical acclaim. Lisa’s third novel, Her Secret Life, will be posthumously published in 2017.
Besides her own writing, Lisa took great pleasure in helping other writers fulfill their potential. She co-founded the ABQ Writers Co-op and was an immensely popular teacher at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and various other venues across the United States. Her workshop at the Southwest Festival of the Written Word, entitled A Quick Tour of Writing and Publishing in 2015, was typical: well-informed and presented with humor and style. She made an indelible impression on all of us here in Silver City.
We send our condolences and best wishes to Lisa’s family and friends.
