Bio

Thank you for visiting my website! I’m glad you’re here.

My name is Liza Achilles, pronounced LIE-zuh uh-KIL-ease. Yes, this is my real name (i.e., not a pen name). I am a writer/editor based in the Washington, D.C., area.

Articles of mine have been published by the Washington Independent Review of Books and the Silent Book Club blog, as well as independent blogs. Poems from my sequence of love sonnets, Two Novembers, have been published by Beltway Poetry Quarterly, The Headlight Review, Tofu Ink Arts Press, Brief Wilderness, The Big Windows Review, and Burrow. In 2016, I was a Semi-Finalist in the William Faulkner–Wisdom Creative Writing Competition for my unpublished literary/historical novel The Water-Creatures. My most recent book is an unpublished memoir.

I have degrees in English from Northwestern University (B.A.) and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (M.Ed.). Having started my career as a high school English teacher, I transitioned into writing and editing, engaging variously in teacher’s guide writing, proposal writing, business writing, and technical writing. I have written for the Obama White House, as well as a publishing house run by Pleasant Rowland, the founder of American Girl. I currently serve as Policy Technical Writer for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Born in northern Virginia, I live in Rockville, Maryland. I enjoy running, reading, and attending artsy events such as theater, poetry readings, art shows, live music, and comedy.