Emma Copley 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, NBC, Them.Us, Autostraddle, 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.” Housemates was also longlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist award and won The Athenaeum of Philadelphia’s Literary Award for Fiction. 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.


Click here for full press kit of downloadable press release, bio, headshot, and book cover.

Subscribe to Emma’s newsletter, Frump Feelings, for monthly dispatches on writing, books, body liberation, events, new classes, and full fat dairy.

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.