Lisa Appignanesi

Lisa Appignanesi was born Elsbieta Borenztejn on January 4, 1946 in Lódz, Poland, and is a writer and novelist of Polish-Jewish origin.

She was raised in Paris, France and in Montreal, Canada. She graduated from McGill University with a B.A. degree in 1966 and her M.A. the following year. During 1970-71 she was a staff writer for the Centre for Community Research in New York City and is a former University of Essex lecturer in European Studies. She was a founding member and editorial director of the Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative. Through the eighties she was a Deputy Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, UK, for whom she also edited the seminal Documents Series and established ICA television and the video Writers in Conversation series.

Appignanesi produced several made for television films and had written a number of books before devoting herself to writing full time in 1990. Novels followed - Memory and Desire, Dreams of Innocence, A Good Woman, Paris Requiem, Unholy Loves, and in 2004, The Memory Man. These were interspersed with a classic study of Freud's Women, with John Forrester, and a number of other non-fictions. Her edited books include The Rushdie File and the PEN Penguin Book, Free Expression is No Offence.

In 2000, she was nominated for the Charles Taylor Prize for the best Canadian work of literary non-fiction for Losing the Dead: A Family Memoir. The Memory Manwas shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize and won the Canadian Holocaust Fiction Award. In recognition of her contribution to literature, Lisa Appignanesi has been honoured with a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government. In 2004, she became Deputy President of English PEN and has run its highly successful 'Free Expression is No Offence Campaign' against the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill.

She writes for The Guardian, The Independent and has made several series for BBC Radio 4, as well as frequently appearing as a cultural commentator.

Lisa Appignanesi has two children, the film-maker Josh Appignanesi, whose first feature is Song of Songs, and Katrina Forrester. She lives in London.

Fact file

Name: Lisa Appignanesi

Date of birth: 4.1.1946

Place of birth: Lodz, Poland

Current Home: London

Education: McGill University

Similar Authors: George Monbiot, Naomi Klein, Helen Dunmore, Margaret Forster