bio
Emma Copley (pronounced cop-ley) Eisenberg is the author of the novel Housemates, which was a national bestseller and named a best book of the year by The Boston Globe, People, Them.Us, and Kirkus Reviews as well as one of Electric Literature’s “Top 5 Novels of 2024” and Time Magazine’s “16 Best Books to Read for Pride.” Her narrative nonfiction book, The Third Rainbow Girl, was a New York Times Notable Book and Editor’s Choice as well as a finalist for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Award, among other honors. Her fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in Granta, Esquire, The New Republic, Lux, The Washington Post Magazine, VQR, and many other publications. She lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts. Her short story collection, Fat Swim, is forthcoming from Hogarth in 2026.
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LONGER BIO
Emma Copley (pronounced cop-ley) Eisenberg is the author of the novel Housemates, which was an American Books Association and USA Today national bestseller and named a best book of the year by The Boston Globe, People, Them.Us, and Kirkus Reviews as well as one of Electric Literature’s “Top 5 Novels of 2024” and Time Magazine’s “16 Best Books to Read for Pride.” Her fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in Granta, Esquire, The New Republic, Lux, The Washington Post Magazine, VQR, and many other publications. She has received fellowships, grants and residencies from Yaddo, Bread Loaf, the Tin House Summer Workshop, the Millay Colony, Lighthouse Works, Monson Arts, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Elizabeth George Foundation.
Eisenberg is also the author of The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, a work of hybrid nonfiction that mixes memoir, cultural criticism, and reporting. It was named a New York Times Notable Book and Editor’s Choice of 2020 and was a finalist for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Bouchercon Award among other honors.
Eisenberg has taught creative writing at Haverford College, Wesleyan University, Bryn Mawr College, Temple University, and the University of Virginia, where she received her MFA in fiction and was a Henry Hoyns/Poe Faulkner fellow. She also holds a Bachelors of Arts from Haverford College. Raised in New York City, she lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts. Her short story collection, Fat Swim, is forthcoming from Hogarth in 2026.
Recent Writing
Some recent writing includes a reported opinion piece for The New Republic exploring fatphobia in the contemporary American literary fiction landscape, an essay on about the “Unhinged Bisexual Woman” novel for Lux Magazine, “Fat Swim,” a short story published in VQR about a little girl who falls in love with a group of fat women at her local Philly pool, a meditation on the digital exploitation of Philadelphia’s opioid crisis, a Boston Globe review of Marcy Dermansky’s novel Hurricane Girl, and a deep dive into why it’s so hard to find the right fat wedding dress. Other writings, including Pushcart-winning and notable Best American short fiction and GLAAD-nominated journalism, can be found in the archive.