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Lisa Ko

@iamlisako.bsky.social
2.2K followers 433 following 71 posts

📚 MEMORY PIECE (2024) 📚 THE LEAVERS (2017) Nationally bestselling novelist • National Book Award finalist • New Yorker lisa-ko.com

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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
Craving words on actual paper? Ready to hurl your phone into the sea? Sign up for my snail mailing list and I'll personally mail you one zine or letter per season in 2026! Think essays and Q&As not available online and other surprises TBD! No tracking, no fascist tech platform that owns our work.
Graphic on blue background: Mail Club, a snail mailing list from lisa ko (with black snail illustration), blue "tower" image with cloud and rain, manila envelope with the words Sign up by Jan 15! slow mail analog delights in the slop and surveillance age, I'll send you four zines/letters in 2026, one per season, one-time payment of $19 covers shipping and materials, snail mail delivery, no tracking; orange and yellow stamp image, and Venmo $19 with your name, email, and mailing address in the note to: @Lisa-Ko
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Harsha Walia @harshawalia.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
there is a lot to be terrified of with news out of Minnesota thing that sticks out to me is how the killer impersonated being a cop Canada's deadliest mass shooting also involved police impersonation pretending to be cops in order to kill speaks volumes about sanctioned police violence & impunity
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Maud Newton @maudnewton.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
I recently read @iamlisako.bsky.social's MEMORY PIECE. A good companion read to PARABLE OF THE SOWER, with Y2K era art, tech, and activism storylines that extend to the future. Recommended.
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
The AI book list and general enshittification reminded me that I've been credited as blurbing hundreds of books I never have, including books by Patti Smith, Amy Tan, Sidney Sheldon, Joyce Maynard, and Elmore Leonard? And I can't get these fake blurbs taken off publisher and bookstore websites?
Blurbs attributed to "Lisa Ko, author of the leavers" for Elmore Leonard, Sidney Sheldon, Joyce maynard, Peter Maas, Amy Tan, and Patti Smith
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Build your own time capsule with me on April 2 at Interference Archive as an analog antidote to digital authoritarianism. When histories are rewritten and collective memory is contested, personal archiving can be a mode of resistance. RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/e/build-your...
A drawing of gray time capsule with a clock buried in the dirt beneath grass and shadows of buildings. Build Your Own Time Capsule: a workshop facilitated by Lisa Ko. Weds. April 2, 2025, 6:30-8:30pm, Interference Archive, 314 7th Street, Brooklyn
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Build your own time capsule with me on April 2 at Interference Archive as an analog antidote to digital authoritarianism. When histories are rewritten and collective memory is contested, personal archiving can be a mode of resistance. RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/e/build-your...
A drawing of gray time capsule with a clock buried in the dirt beneath grass and shadows of buildings. Build Your Own Time Capsule: a workshop facilitated by Lisa Ko. Weds. April 2, 2025, 6:30-8:30pm, Interference Archive, 314 7th Street, Brooklyn
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Moderately present
Feline Grimace Scale chart with first row "ear position" with photos of 3 cats Ears facing forward, slightly pulled apart, and rotated outwards. Second row Orbital tightening with 3 cats: Eyes opened, partially closed, squinted
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Memory Piece is out in paperback soon and we're celebrating with obsessions! I've dreamed of organizing a reading where writers share PowerPoints on topics they're obsessed with. Join us on 3/25 at P&T Knitwear for presentations from Jennifer Baker, Temim Fruchter, Benedict Nguyễn, and Nina Sharma!
Tues, March 25th, 6:30PM General Admission: $5 Redeemable as Credit Towards Book Purchase P&T Knitwear 180 Orchard St New York NY 10002 Lisa Ko Presents Memory Piece with Presentations from Special Guests Author photos of Temim Fruchter, Jennifer Baker, Benedict Nguyễn, and Nina Sharma
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
more cash, less cards in 2025. bring back subway tokens. let me pay for laundry with a giant stack of quarters
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
It's paperback events season for MEMORY PIECE. @aliontas.bsky.social called the book "both warning and safe harbor," which I love! Join me on 3/25 for the paperback launch in NYC, and events in Philly, NJ, LA and more - plus a time capsule workshop and a zine workshop in April! lisa-ko.com/events
An image of a figure on a bicycle next to Join Lisa Ko on Tour For Memory Piece

3/19: Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota Writers Conference 
3/21: Charlottesville, VA: Virginia Festival of the Book
3/25: NY, NY: P&T Knitwear - Paperback Launch (Obsessions! with Jennifer Baker, Temim Fruchter, Benedict Nguyễn, and Nina Sharma)
3/27: Long Beach, CA: Bel Canto Books (book launch for Roohi Choudhry’s Outside Women) 
4/02: Brooklyn, NY: Interference Archive (Build Your Own Time Capsule Workshop)
4/07: Paramus, NJ: Barnes & Noble (in conversation with Nicole Haroutunian)
4/10: Philadelphia, PA: Asian Arts Initiative (in conversation with Emma Copley Eisenberg) 
4/13: Queens, NY: The World’s Borough Bookshop (Zine Workshop)
4/15: Brooklyn, NY: Liz’s Book Bar (with Clare Beams, Xochitl Gonzalez, and Crystal Hana Kim) 
4/17: Brooklyn, NY: Hive Mind Books (with Griffin Hansbury) 
4/26-27: Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

More details at lisa-ko.com

An image of the cover of the book, with the same figure on a bicycle set against a fuschia flame
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NYCosmosSC @nycosmossc.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Every Sunday, New Yorkers from all over make their way downtown to volunteer their time & fight the good, gourmet-inspired fight with EV❤️NYC. Packing up a hot meal & sending it out to our most vulnerable neighbors is a relatively small act…which feels great Learn more⬇️ www.evloves.nyc 📸Linda Hayes
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
My prompt on creating your own time capsule as an anchor in uncertain times is today's letter for @writingco-lab.bsky.social's 100 Days of Creative Resistance. Read the full post: mailchi.mp/504fc06240fa/lisa-ko-creating-time-capsule
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
ty Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya for including Memory Piece! "A sprawling feminist tale about art, tech and capitalism, the queer relationships (and sex scenes!) are as detailed and developed as its storytelling about the toxic relationship between art and capitalism" www.autostraddle.com/queer-climat...
autostraddle.com
Queer Books About the Environment for When All You Can Think About Is Climate Crisis
These 30+ books are about land, ecology, natural disasters, apocalypse, the harm capitalism does to the planet, despair, hope, growth, death, and rebirth.
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
This is art
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
I aim to disrupt myself by writing 8,001 books in 2025 alone!
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Memory Piece is one of NPR's 2024 Books We Love: "A story about 3 friends growing up in and around NYC in the '90s. Their friendship evolves as they push the boundaries of art, performance and technology. I loved that the book makes art feel real and weird and kind of gross." Kind of gross: YES
Books We Love: NPR

This is a coming-of-age story about three friends growing up in and around New York City in the 1990s. Their friendship evolves over the decades as they experiment with, and push the boundaries of, art, performance and technology. I loved that the book makes art feel real and weird and kind of gross – not glamorous and sugarcoated.
— Elissa Nadworny, correspondent
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vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
+1 to this! If you’re in NYC it’s at Film Forum through the weekend. filmforum.org/film/soundtr...
filmforum.org
Film Forum · SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT Opens Friday, November 1 at Film Forum
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Jerry Chen @jcsalterego.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
mental health break? you bet it did
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Grace Lee Boggs: "You don't choose the times you live in, but you do choose who you want to be, and you do choose how you want to think."
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 10/11/2024
overdue for this, but what better time than the present to get emergency water storage (and find room to stash them in a city apartment) and I found this guide useful as someone whose approach to buying things is to simply want to be told what to get and where - theprepared.com/homestead/re...
theprepared.com
Best short term emergency water storage
Survival experts researched and tested dozens of the best short term emergency water storage containers for your home. Plus tips on storage and cleaning.
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Motzie Dapul @motzied.bsky.social · 06/11/2024
Fuck it we ball 🇵🇭
Screenshot of a tumblr post from motziedapul:

Maybe it's just me as a Filipino who has lived through a murderous dictatorship and oligarchies in a queerphobic country controlled by the rich who brutalize grassroots pro worker movements all under the military abuse of US imperialism but...

You just gotta keep showing up. Support each other. Don't just fight for yourself. The work is hard, but you just gotta keep doing it. You'll always see results, even if they're not always the ones you want, or as big as you want them to be.

All your work always matters. Even if it doesn't feel like it at first. It always matters.

12 years of murderous and plunderous dictators but fuck it we ball
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 09/11/2024
Prospect Park fire and eye-watering smoky air this morning in Brooklyn - consider masking up if you're out and about www.nbcnewyork.com/weather/weat...
nbcnewyork.com
NYC under air quality alert as smoke blankets tri-state; red flag warnings, drought conditions persist
Wildfires continue to burn around the tri-state as red flag warnings remain and drought conditions persist. The fires are leading to smoky skies and diminished air quality. Nearly a half-dozen wildfir...
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Prism @prismreports.org · 07/11/2024
Fascism cannot be overcome at the ballot box, writes @williamcson.bsky.social in his column. Confused & dizzy liberals drunk off the spectacle tumbled into historical amnesia, as if conspiring with those from the very forces that prescribed “Trumpism” was subversive. prismreports.org/2024/11/07/f...
prismreports.org
Fascism cannot be overcome at the ballot box
A mixture of fear and representation politics have helped the Republican Party amalgamate the liberal base into their policy positions
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Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 06/11/2024
It's a good time to read this piece.
wagingnonviolence.org
10 ways to be prepared and grounded if Trump wins
The key to taking effective action if Trump wins is to avoid perpetuating his goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation.
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Jack Mirkinson @jackmirkinson.bsky.social · 23/08/2024
I can't stop thinking about the woman with the Pride bracelet at the DNC, covering her ears to drown out the names of dead Palestinian children. A perfect, chilling symbol of a party desperately trying to avoid the reality of the horror it has produced. www.discourseblog.com/p/the-democr...
discourseblog.com
The Democratic Party Does Not Hear You
Scenes from a week of genocide denial.
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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 19/08/2024
If Chrystul Kizer had blonde hair and blue eyes, she’d probably be onstage tonight at the DNC, shaking hands with politicians who used her ordeal to help pass a federal law establishing “Stand Your Ground” policy for sex trafficking victims.
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Nicole Chung @nicolechung.bsky.social · 21/08/2024
Lisa Lucas: “It’s hard to be reminded by an entire industry that investments in your people will not be made, and that when investments are made, they’re provisional.” gift link: www.nytimes.com/2024/08/21/b...
nytimes.com
‘A Lot of Us Are Gone’: How the Push to Diversify Publishing Fell Short
Lisa Lucas was among the big hires meant to shake up the industry. Her departure, alongside other prominent Black editors and executives, has led some to question publishers’ pledge to diversify.
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 24/06/2024
I wrote about dream futures at @therumpus.bsky.social and the bizarre dissonance betwen what we're experiencing/witnessing and what we're told we are - and how speaking the truth of how we're really doing can be the most optimistic thing of all therumpus.net/2024/06/19/d...
therumpus.net
Dream Futures - The Rumpus
Again and again, I return to this: being in community is the antidote to feeling dread, despair, and powerlessness.
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 13/06/2024
It's been 2.5 months since MEMORY PIECE published and I wanted to share some pieces and interviews I've enjoyed doing (book promo right now often feels like such a gross dissonance (but I guess also fitting for a novel that's essentially about art making and creative work under capitalism)) ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 23/05/2024
oh no. created a playlist for a new novel. I guess it's really happening
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 22/05/2024
was not aware that Steve Aoki is a fan of The Leavers and has a chapter about my novel in his memoir
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 16/05/2024
two of the archival images we'll be showing at our BKPL event tonight - v excited to finally do powerpoint at a lit reading rsvp here -
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 14/05/2024
"Ko pens a very queer book about memory, art, and revolution... brilliantly evoking what it feels like to live in today’s world: a burning that’s somehow slow and swift all at once" - thank you @KaylaKumari for this insightful review of Memory Piece!
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 09/05/2024
Two final NYC events for MEMORY PIECE this month! Thur 5/16: LISA LISA at BK Library - can't wait to talk to @Qidurian abt shared novel themes incl Tehching Hsieh, art, labor, and more Tues 5/28: WNYC & NYPL chose MP as their May book club pick (!) and I'll be in convo at SNFL
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 02/05/2024
how's that 'pushing Biden left' thing going
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 30/04/2024
this is very Memory Piece: "stairwell with street-art style murals, a nod to the original 5 Pointz. Its owner tore it down to build the luxury housing complex. maybe the apts are so expensive bc he had to pay $150k for the art destroyed in the demolition"
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 11/04/2024
Come see me at these April and May events in and around NYC! Tickets and more info (including two virtual events) at
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 04/04/2024
last night at @booksaremagicbk - thank you @melissa_rivero for such a great conversation and everyone who came out in such gross weather. seeing people from so many parts of my life - friends from high school! former students! writers! - is one of the best things about book tour
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 30/03/2024
went to pick up my library holds from my local branch and saw that someone had Memory Piece waiting for them on the holds shelf! thank you, neighbor (seeing my books in the library always makes me a little emotional 🥲)
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 28/03/2024
I talked to @CatZhang1 at @TheCut about Chinese school, 90s web journals, my secret driving playlists, and other obsolete esoterica - is this the first time that Teresa Teng and Noel have been mentioned in the same sentence in an interview?
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 26/03/2024
Last night's beautiful NYC launch for MEMORY PIECE with Ava Chin and Yu & Me Books / AAWW - so much abundance, so many sweet friends, 20% of this audience had an emotional flashback to the phrase "Dojo carrot ginger dressing"
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 22/03/2024
East Coast! I'm coming home soon and can't wait to launch MEMORY PIECE next week in NYC, DC, and Boston, in conversation with these amazing writers! Ticket links below, and don't forget to wear a mask ❤️
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 20/03/2024
Loved doing this Q&A with Amy Sutherland for the @BostonGlobe Bibliophiles column - got to discuss my compulsive reading habits, shout out recent favorites by @Lubchansky and @SafiyaSinclair, and the joy of lurching from “The Years” to “The Bee Sting”
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 19/03/2024
celebrating pub day in LA - this is tonight at Skylight Books!
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 17/03/2024
"long-awaited second novel" coming soooon
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 14/03/2024
LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO, SEATTLE: I'm coming to you next week to launch MEMORY PIECE on the west coast (my first book launch since 2017)! I'll be in conversation with these generous & amazing writers. All events are free, ticket links below, and don't forget to wear a mask ❤️
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Lisa Ko @iamlisako.bsky.social · 13/03/2024
thank you @KateDwyer for including MEMORY PIECE in this spring fiction preview
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