About
Lya Badgley’s path to becoming a novelist has been as unconventional as the stories she tells. Born in Yangon, Myanmar, to Montana parents—a political scientist and an artist—she grew up in a household that valued both creativity and critical thought. After moving to the Pacific Northwest in the eighties, she became part of Seattle’s dynamic music and arts scene.
Her journey later carried her back to Southeast Asia, where she worked as a videographer on a covert mission interviewing Burmese insurgents, and then as director of Cornell University’s Archival Project at the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide in Cambodia. There, she helped preserve vital documents used in the pursuit of justice. She also managed one of the first foreign-owned businesses in Myanmar, opening the landmark 50th Street Bar & Grill in Yangon. Closer to home, she has served as an elected city council member and environmental activist.
Her fiction blends suspense and cultural nuance, exploring how landscapes marked by conflict and upheaval become reflections of the chaos—and resilience—within the human heart. Her debut, The Foreigner’s Confession (2022), was a finalist for the Nancy Pearl Award for Best Fiction. Her second, The Worth of a Ruby (2023), was a 2024 finalist for both the International Book Award and the National Indie Excellence Award.
Badgley is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. When not traveling, she lives outside Seattle, Washington, and is excited to release her third novel, The Thirty-Fifth Page, a luminous tale set in Bosnia that weaves together history, folklore, and transformation.
