About & Contact

My mother was an early supporter of my work

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Lisa Marie Brodsky is a city girl who wound up in the countryside of Wisconsin. She has been writing poetry since the age of 12 and fiction since the time she could hold a pencil. She received her first rejection letter at 15 and her first full-length book contract at 34. Much has happened in between.

Lisa Marie started out with a double-major in Creative Writing and Theatre at Beloit College before transferring to Loyola University of Chicago and attaining a B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. She then returned to Wisconsin where she worked as the unofficial grand poobah of the poetry section for the esteemed though now-defunct Canterbury Booksellers. In 2003, Lisa Marie became the first Martha Meir Renk Graduate Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she received an M.F.A. in Poetry in 2005. Lisa Marie has been featured on Madison Public Radio, WISC-TV, and in Madison Magazine. Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have been published in The North American Review, Diode Poetry Journal, Verse Wisconsin, The Peacock Review, The Mom Egg Review, Poetry Quarterly, SUSAN/The Journal, and has work forthcoming in Linden Avenue Literary Journal, The Barrow Street Review, and The Drowning Gull. She was the Wisconsin Director  for the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project and wrote about the disease in her poetry chapbook, We Nod Our Dark Heads (Parallel Press, 2008). Her first full-length collection, Motherlung (Salmon Poetry, 2014), chronicling the piercingly interdependent relationship between her deceased mother and herself, was selected for an Outstanding Poetry recognition for a 2014 publication by the Wisconsin Library Association.

In April of 2016, Lisa Marie was included among many prestigious poets in the long-awaited collection, "Even the Daybreak: An Anthology Celebrating 35 Years of Salmon Poetry," edited by Jessie Lendennie.

Lisa Marie is on faculty of AllWriters' Workplace & Workshop based in Waukesha, WI, where she lectures and teaches on using poetry as a salve for emotional wounds. She has extensive experience leading creative writing workshops for a variety of people, including the elderly, disabled, adults, teenagers, and children. She can lead a general writing workshop or focus on a range of topics such as grief, depression, healing, faith, guided visualization, and much more. She has held workshops at summer camps, schools, community centers, universities, assisted living centers, coffeehouses, bookstores, and living rooms. Lisa Marie is available to speak to writing students of all ages about the process of writing and publication as well as lead workshops for your group, organization, or circle of friends. Contact her via the form to the right for more information. 

Lisa Marie works as a Peer Support Specialist and teaches the workshop, "Writing Your Way to Wellness," always a guide for those struggling to find hope through the power of words. 

NEW
ANNOUNCING A NEW ENDEAVOR!
Inquire about the new service of Creativity Advocate and gain a cheerleader/mentor/witness/guide to assist you in finding your place of confident creativity! Click on the new Creativity Advocate tab to learn more!

If you breathe, you have a story to tell.
Someone is waiting to hear that story.

Poets & Writers Author Directory Page