Heft (Moore)

Author Bio
• Birth—May 25, 1983
• Where—Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—M.F.A., Hunter College
• Currently—lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


Liz Moore is a writer, musician, and teacher.

She wrote most of her first novel, The Words of Every Song (2007), while in college. The book, which centers on a fictional record company in present-day New York City, draws partly on Liz’s own experiences as a musician. It was selected for Borders’ Original Voices program, received 3.5/4 stars in People Magazine, and was given a starred review by Kirkus. Roddy Doyle wrote of it, “This is a remarkable novel, elegant, wise, and beautifully constructed. I loved the book.”

After the publication of her debut novel, Liz released an album, Backyards, and obtained her MFA in Fiction from Hunter College, where she studied with Peter Carey, Colum McCann, and Nathan Englander. After being awarded the University of Pennsylvania’s ArtsEdge residency, she moved to Philadelphia in the summer of 2009. She has taught Creative Writing at Hunter College and the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Writing at Holy Family University in Philadelphia, where she lives.

Her second novel, Heft, was published by W.W. Norton in January 2012 to popular and critical acclaim.  Of Heft, The New Yorker wrote, “Moore’s characters are lovingly drawn...a truly original voice”; The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “Few novelists of recent memory have put our bleak isolation into words as clearly as Liz Moore does in her new novel”; and editor Sara Nelson wrote in O, The Oprah Magazine, “Beautiful.... Stunningly sad and heroically hopeful.” (From the publisher.)