Emma Copley Eisenberg is the nationally bestselling author of the novel Housemates, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Fiction and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize, as well as the nonfiction book The Third Rainbow Girl, a New York Times Notable Book and Editor’s Choice and a finalist for an Edgar Award and an Anthony Award. She’s received fellowships and residencies from Yaddo, Bread Loaf, Tin House, The Millay Colony and others, and her fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in such publications as Granta, The Paris Review, The Believer, Esquire, the Virginia Quarterly Review, The New Republic, Harpers Bazaar, and The Cut. She lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts. Her next book of fiction, Fat Swim, will be published on April 28, 2026.


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Housemates


Four housemates, looking for a fifth, the ad read. Queer preferred (we all are).

This is how Bernie, a film photographer, meets writer Leah, and from opposite sides of a thin bedroom wall in West Philadelphia the two become closer than they ever could have imagined. When Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie on a road trip to her former professor’s home in rural Pennsylvania to settle a complicated inheritance, what ensues is an unexpected road trip into the heart of America as the duo try to make sense of the times they are living in – falling in love with each other and rediscovering the power of making art along the way.

With humor, warmth, and beautifully observed characters, and told through the lens of two generations of queer creatives reflecting on questions of “how should a person be?”, Housemates is a glorious celebration of creativity, body liberation, chosen family–and of finding your place in an uncertain world.