Bios

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Short bio:
Lisa Tolin is the editorial director of the literary and free expression nonprofit PEN America. As a journalist and editorial director, Lisa has led coverage of arts and entertainment, lifestyles, health, and breaking news for major news organizations. She is also the author of fiction and nonfiction for children, including How to Be a Rock Star (Putnam, 2022) and Can You Imagine? The Art and Life of Yoko Ono (Atheneum, 2025). She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and two sons.

Not-so-short bio:
Lisa Tolin is the editorial director of the literary and free expression nonprofit PEN America. As a journalist, Lisa worked for more than two decades as a journalist and editor at NBC News and The Associated Press, with bylines in Insider, Fatherly and more. She covered breaking news from hurricanes and crime to the COVID-19 crisis. She's overseen entertainment coverage and interviewed a number of celebrities including Yoko Ono (the subject of Lisa's picture book, Can You Imagine? The Life and Art of Yoko Ono). She's directed coverage of health news and stories about the way we live today, from food and fashion to relationships and parenting.

Her family inspired her to pursue a longtime dream of writing for children. Reading to her sons, she rediscovered a love of picture books reaching back to a childhood with Where the Wild Things Are, The Monster at the End of This Book and Where the Sidewalk Ends that spoke to her quirky sensibility.

Lisa's debut picture book, How to Be a Rock Star, is inspired by her children. Her oldest son has been singing since he could talk, and jamming on guitar from the age of 18 months. When his younger brother was born, he had to make some adjustments to his musical career -- but hey, that's rock 'n roll.