About
Lya Badgley was born in Yangon, Myanmar, to Montana parents—a political scientist and an artist—and grew up between cultures, an experience that continues to shape her fiction. After moving to the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s, she became part of Seattle’s vibrant music and arts scene.
Her career has taken her from interviewing Burmese insurgents as a videographer to directing Cornell University’s archival project at Cambodia’s Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide, where she helped preserve evidence used in the pursuit of justice. She later opened one of Myanmar’s first foreign-owned businesses, the landmark 50th Street Bar & Grill in Yangon, and has also served as an elected city council member and environmental advocate.
Badgley’s novels blend literary suspense with richly atmospheric explorations of history, identity, and resilience. Her debut, The Foreigner’s Confession (2022), was a finalist for the Nancy Pearl Award for Best Fiction. The Worth of a Ruby (2023) was a finalist for the International Book Awards and the National Indie Excellence Awards. Her latest novel, The Thirty-Fifth Page, set in Bosnia, was shortlisted for the Chanticleer International Book Awards, the National Indie Excellence Awards, and the International Book Awards.
She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association and divides her time between the Pacific Northwest and Serbia.
