With a degree in journalism, Lisa K. Buchanan initially worked as a writer and editor for a women's magazine, covering health issues while ingesting pizza dinners at her desk and caffeine on the commute home. The contradiction launched a long-term fascination with words included and words omitted; she now specializes in compressed prose forms.

Over the last 25 years, her award-winning stories and essays have appeared in both commercial magazines (Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Seventeen) and in literary journals (Florida Review, Fourth Genre, Mid-American Review, The Missouri Review, Narrative, New Letters, Quick Fiction).

She has an M.F.A. from Mills College and teaches privately from her office in San Francisco.