Lara Stapleton was born and raised in East Lansing, Michigan. Her maternal family is from the Philippines. New York City is her homeland. She is the author of the short story collection The Lowest Blue Flame Before Nothing (Aunt Lute), an Independent Booksellers' Selection, and a Pen Open Book Committee Selection. She edited The Thirdest World (Factory School) and co-edited Juncture (Soft Skull). Her work has appeared in dozens of periodicals, including The LA Review of Books, Poets and Writers, The Brooklyn Rail, Ms., Glimmer Train, and The Indiana Review. A writer of prose, poetry, and teleplays, she is developing 1850; co-created with Rachel Watanabe-Batton, the television series is set in antebellum New Orleans and is about mixed-race families, taboo and the color line. The project was selected for the IFP No Borders International Co-Production Market. She is also at work on a show about a self-destructive multi-cultural community in Brooklyn and another about a Filipino-American restaurateur with Nicole Ponseca. She was the recipient of a Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Grant for writers and a two-time winner of the University of Michigan's Hopwood Award for fiction. She was also the winner of the Columbia Journal fiction prize. A graduate of NYU's creative writing program, her greatest pride is for her students at Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York.