Lisa Williamson

Lisa Williamson has always loved stories. A childhood spent reading, drawing, and making up tales in her head originally lead her down the path of acting. After gaining a Performing Arts Degree at Middlesex University, Lisa worked as an actor for over a decade, performing in a range of productions including a panto with Basil Brush and as a Witch in Macbeth: The Musical.

Inspired by her time at the Gender Identity Development Service, an NHS specialised clinic for under-Eighteens struggling with gender identity, Lisa wrote The Art of Being Normal. Told from the perspective of a transgender teenager, Lisa’s exploration of gender identity garnered widespread praise. It was a bestseller in both hardback and paperback and won the older fiction category of the Waterstones Children’s Book Award 2016, in addition to being shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and Branford Boase Award.

Lisa’s second novel All About Mia, was published in 2017 and explores complex family dynamics in an endearing story of a misunderstood chaotic middle child. Paper Avalanche followed in 2019; a poignant tale of a 14-year-old girl struggling to deal with her mother’s hoarding habit. Lisa is also one of seven authors of collaborative novel Floored (Macmillan Children’s Books), published in Summer 2018. First Day of My Life, was published in January 2021, scooping the Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week and a shortlisting for the 2022 YA Book Prize.

Her latest book series, Bigg School, (Guppy) tells stories of the extraordinary lives of ordinary kids navigating friendships, change and all the ups and downs of growing up. The first instalment, Best Friends Forever, was published in 2023. The second, Double Drama, and third, Secret Crush, instalments were published in April and September of 2024.

Photo courtesy of Dale Wightman