Lisa Factora-Borchers
Lisa Factora-Borchers is a Filipinx American writer, activist, and co-publisher of Guernica Magazine. Lisa is the editor of Dear Sister: Letters from Survivors of Sexual Violence (AK Press, 2014), and her work is forthcoming or can be found in Bomb, The Millions, Adroit Journal, The National Catholic Reporter, The Independent (UK), Refinery 29, In The Fray, TruthOut, The Feminist Wire, The International Examiner, Mutha, and Ano Ba magazines. She has contributed to anthologies Burn It Down (Seal Press, 2019), Feminisms in Motion: Voices for Justice, Liberation, and Transformation (AK Press, 2018), Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines (PM Press, 2016), Verses Typhoon Yolanda: A Storm of Filipino Poets (Pawa Press, 2014).
Lisa has worked in several publishing and editorial capacities. She is a senior features editor at The Rumpus and a contributing editor at Catapult magazine. Previously, she has served as the editorial director for Bitch Media, and also as a nonfiction editor with make/shift magazine and Literary Mama. Lisa is the book editor for the Amazon best-selling book Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (Arsenal Press, 2018) and editor of the column “The Pleasure Dome” by adrienne maree brown which later became the New York Times best-selling book Pleasure Activism (AK Press, 2019). She is a 2012 memoir fellow for Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation (VONA), and was awarded a 2018 Fall residency at the Sundress Academy of the Arts.
Lisa was recognized by Rewire.News as one of the five revolutionary Asian American activists who is leading the fight for reproductive freedom. She is a board member for Zora’s House, an entrepreneurial think tank and haven for women of color, and a political thought leader for OPAWL (Ohio Progressive Asian Women’s Leadership). She cofounded and co-facilitates a healing justice group Feminist Grounding where AAPI women and nonbinary folx reflect upon the intersecting points of identity, trauma, and liberation. Lisa is also a leadership officer in the inaugural Ohio chapter of FAHNS (Filipino American History National Society). Lisa is also the founder of The End Writers Collective, a decolonizing-in-practice community space for BIPOC writers finishing their literary manuscripts.
Lisa received a BA in English from Xavier University; a joint masters degree in Counseling Psychology and Pastoral Ministry from Boston College; and an MFA in Literary Nonfiction Creative Writing from Columbia University. She leads workshops, retreats, and forums centralizing race, feminism, political consciousness, spirituality, transformative listening, and sustainable, everyday activism.
She is currently working on her next book, a savaged and brown memoir about race, faith, politics, and diasporic feminism in middle America.
