Lisa Bansen-Harp
For Lisa Bansen-Harp, language and books have always seemed magical, full of secret codes and surprises. Some of that was passed down from her mother, a great reader. Some of it came from trying to understand what her immigrant grandparents were talking about in Danish. In college, she finally cracked their code. Learning Danish, then French, German, a little Spanish, and some Latin opened up new worlds of words and new cultures to discover. Grad school research led to the medieval manuscripts room at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Reading one-of-a-kind books written by hand 800 years ago feels like time-travel!
After a first career teaching French language, literature, and culture at the college level, Lisa now teaches French part-time in grades 6-12 and has returned to her first love: children’s literature. Having lived in Denmark, France, Germany (briefly), and six U.S. states, she now calls Akron, Ohio home. In her heart, though, she’s a “girl from Yamhill.” She frequently returns to the family farm in Oregon, where she grew up with seven siblings, a huge and wondrous garden, and way too many animals to count.
Lisa Bansen-Harp (she/her) is repped by Lori Steel.