Emma Copley Eisenberg on Diving In

One day, when she was working on Housemates, she had something like a vision: she was standing on a cliff over the ocean, and her two main characters were bobbing in the water below, calling up to her that she had to jump in. She didn’t want to. They insisted.

Emma Copley Eisenberg is the author of the nationally bestselling novel Housemates and the narrative nonfiction book The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and was nominated for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Award, among other honors. Her fiction has appeared in Granta, McSweeney’s, VQR, American Short Fiction, and other publications. Raised in New York City, she lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts.