Liz Leiman, 2026 Sara Patton Recipient: Nonfiction (Memoir)

Liz Leiman spent much of her youth moving around with her family to small towns in the South. After completing college in Arkansas, she moved to Austin, Texas. Then she embarked on adventures that led her to a life in the Caribbean and New York City. Eventually, she returned to her birth city, Houston.

An avid reader since childhood, Liz set aside her literary pursuits while raising her two children, but after more than a decade as a full-time mother, she decided it was time to return to them. She enrolled in Rice University's Master of Interdisciplinary Studies program, a course of study that ultimately revealed her passion for writing. Liz graduated from Rice with honors and is now working on a nonfiction memoir examining Southern small towns in the 1990s.

Liz lives with her husband, their two teenage children, and a chocolate Labrador in Houston, Texas.