Liska Jacobs

Instructor Biography: 

Liska Jacobs, M.F.A., author of the Southern California bestselling novel The Pink Hotel—a dark social satire described by Esquire as a "glittering" take on greed and excess. Jacobs' previous novels, Catalina and The Worst Kind of Want, were both critically acclaimed, with the latter long-listed for the Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Literary Hub, and Alta, and she is a contributor to the bestselling anthology Eight Very Bad Nights. Jacobs recently returned to her native Los Angeles after several years in Berlin, where she taught at the Berlin Writers Workshop. 

Instructor Statement: 

Jean Rhys said, “To give life shape—that is what a writer does.” I believe this is true regardless of genre, whether its nonfiction or fiction. To do this we need to learn the fundamentals of good storytelling and develop our critical eye. In doing so we can find our authentic voice, which is unique to each of us. Think of the writer as the bewildered self, inherently alone, journeying outwards in hopes of a deeper understanding. And this is the reader too. It’s how “I” becomes a vehicle for “you.” The transference of the universal. Incommunicable except through the gravity of the written word. Learning to be this honest in our writing takes courage. But if we engage with the work and are prepared to learn through doing, then we just might hit that sweet spot where one person’s humanity reflects the world’s.