Local Author Spotlight: Lisa Slage Robinson

By: Emily King

This month we’re featuring Pittsburgh writer Lisa Slage Robinson, author of Esquire Ball: Stories From the Great Black Swamp, which was just released in February. Robinson was named a finalist for Midwest Review’s Great Midwest Fiction Contest, and her work has appeared in many literary publications. A former corporate attorney and litigator, she graduated from Bowling Green University and Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and holds an MFA from Chatham University. After practicing law for many years, Robinson now focuses on her writing career. 

On her first day at her first job right out of law school in Toledo, Ohio, Lisa Slage Robinson was greeted with “Welcome to the Great Black Swamp!” by an associate. The term that would inspire the title of her debut book of essays was a nickname for the town, which had once been dense, boggy swampland that was ripe with urban legends. The name would come back to her years later while studying for her MFA at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, setting the scene for Esquire Ball, Stories from the Great Black Swamp. 

The book is an anthology of thirteen connected short stories set at a fictional law firm in Northwest Ohio, following a young female attorney. Robinson uses magical realism to weave the stories together, which explore themes of feminism, ambition, greed, and the gray areas of morality. The stories, set in the 1980’s, blend mundane office life with magical and mystical circumstances, like men marrying frog wives, and a teenager drowning in a sea of corn. 

“It was great fun to write about these lawyers, but it was even more rewarding to write about the other people affected by their ambitions, wives, brothers, children, clients, the subjects of their lawsuits – the collateral damage from their quest for success,” says Robinson. 

Robinson admits that she tends to compartmentalize her emotions and put up a façade of “everything is fine” in her personal life, which could be a roadblock to creating characters and putting a magnifying glass to the human experience. 

“The fantastical has allowed me to explore tough stuff- through a protective lens,” she says.

Making her home in Pittsburgh has given Robinson access to a rich literary community with writer’s groups, workshops, and plenty of other local authors to glean inspiration from. 

“Pittsburgh has such an amazing vibrant literary community, a rich literary legacy and is home to many brilliant contemporary authors in every genre.  I know that I personally have only scratched the surface of all that this city has to offer,” she says. 

Robinson specifically mentions The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the MFA program at Chatham University, Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures, Craft Talks, and her local writer’s groups with. She also emphasizes the role that local independent bookstores have in promoting and supporting local authors, particularly White Whale Bookstore in Bloomfield, which hosted her book launch.

“White Whale is owned by a husband-and-wife team, Adlai and Jill, and run with the assistance of a kind and generous staff. They are the site for many book launches including my recent launch. I feel so lucky to now be a White Whale book launch alum,” she says. 

After spending ten years bringing Esquire Ball to fruition, Robinson is taking advantage of the momentum and has already begun her next literary endeavor, a novel that takes place in Pittsburgh and Ohio.

“It’s a Frankenstein meets the Wizard of Oz examination of a changing legal landscape,” she says.