Lisa Borders

The inspiration for Cloud Cuckoo Land came from many of Lisa's favorite indie/alternative bands of the 1980s -- R.E.M. (from Murmur through Document), Camper Van Beethoven, Let's Active, the Reivers (known originally as Zeitgeist), the Replacements, and Lone Justice, just to name a few. Two great Philadelphia bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Wishniaks and the Low Road, also figured prominently in Lisa's mind as she recreated the sonic landscape of that era.

While writing Cloud Cuckoo Land, Lisa listened to all of the above artists, but she also listened often to the following albums by more contemporary bands:

Son Volt -- Trace
Wilco -- A.M.
The Jayhawks -- Tomorrow the Green Grass

Books:

Cloud Cuckoo Land, a novel. Chosen by contest judge Pat Conroy as winner of River City Publishing’s Fred Bonnie Memorial Award for Best First Novel, October 2002.

Short Stories:

“Lost and Found.” Kalliope, Vol. XXIX, No. 1, 2007.

“Stop.” Newport Review, May/June 2004.

“Easter.” Bananafish, Fall/Winter 1999; nominated for Pushcart Prize, December 1999.

“Fitting.” Northeast Corridor, Issue 6, 1999.

“Temporary Help.” Winner of Bananafish fiction contest, Spring/Summer 1998.

“Tea Party.” Washington Square, No. 3, Spring 1998.

“The Angel Effect.” Iowa Woman, Vol. 15, No. 4, Winter 1995.

“Signs of Life.” Agassiz Review, Spring 1993.

“Shoes.” Snake Nation Review, No. 6, Summer 1992.

“Sarah in the Tornado.” Black Warrior Review, Vol. 18, Issue 1, 1991.

Nonfiction:

“Enchanted Night,” essay. Published in the anthology Don’t You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes, Jaime Clarke, ed., Simon & Schuster, March 2007.

“Contest Victory Was Her Path to Publication.” “Breakthrough” column, The Writer, May 2005.

“What’s It All About.” Book review, Post Road, No. 9, Fall/Winter 2004.

Numerous journalistic articles published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the New Bedford Standard Times and the (Vineland, NJ) Daily Journal in the 1980s and 1990s. Lisa won several New Jersey Press Association awards as a reporter in the 1980s.