Lisa Mantchev

Lisa Mantchev writes fantasy for younger readers and collaborative speculative fiction. She studied drama, taught English, and directed a theater program for children, experiences that informed the backstage setting of her Théâtre Illuminata trilogy. Lost Angeles, written with A. L. Purol, opened a four volume urban fantasy sequence during 2015. It portrays a city where displaced souls, supernatural factions, and uneasy alliances overlap. Loose Canon, Lovers Naught, and Divine Revelation continue the sequence. Earlier Mantchev novels Eyes Like Stars, Perchance to Dream, and So Silver Bright follow a girl raised inside an enchanted theater. Her picture books include Strictly No Elephants, Sister Day, and Jinx and the Doom Fight Crime. Lost Angeles leaves the literal theater behind but retains her interest in ensemble casts, hidden identities, and invented spaces governed by unusual rules. Her collaboration with Purol distinguishes this urban fantasy cycle from her solo theater novels and illustrated work while extending her focus on characters who form alliances inside unstable worlds across changing genres and forms for readers worldwide.