Order of Lisa Wingate Books

In a world obsessed with plot twists and adrenaline-fueled thrillers, Lisa Wingate carved her name with something far rarer—a pen soaked in empathy, history, and hope. Born on May 3, 1965, in Germany, but raised in the heart of Oklahoma, USA, Lisa was destined to become more than just another fiction writer. She became a voice for the unheard, a keeper of forgotten stories, and an emotional architect who builds bridges between generations, one page at a time.

There is no tragic death date to mark the end of her journey—thankfully, Lisa Wingate is still alive and writing, breathing life into the most poignant corners of American history. But if you’re expecting her to have emerged from the Ivy League halls of literary pedigree, think again. Lisa graduated from Oklahoma State University, not as an aspiring novelist, but as a journalism student with a keen eye for detail and a hunger for human stories. Ironically, it wasn’t newspapers or polished press pieces that made her legacy—it was fiction so real it hurts.

Before she was a New York Times bestselling author, Lisa was a speaker, a magazine columnist, and yes—even a mom who wrote at the kitchen table while dinner simmered on the stove. Her journey into the literary world began like a whispered secret, with her first book, Tending Roses, sprouting quietly in 2001. But it didn’t stay quiet for long. Readers found in her books what they often failed to find in life—resilience, redemption, and the unshakable warmth of a story well told.

Lisa Wingate's writing doesn’t merely entertain; it reveals. Her breakout novel, Before We Were Strangers (2017), didn’t just break sales records—it broke hearts and reopened history books. Inspired by the real-life horrors of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society scandal, Lisa unearths the raw, unfiltered trauma of families torn apart—and gifts readers a journey toward healing. Through her words, stolen voices finally scream, and silent grief is sung.

But don't mistake her warmth for softness. Lisa’s storytelling is brave. It speaks of things we’d rather forget, makes us fall in love with characters too real to be fictional, and dares us to question what we know about the past. There’s irony in that, isn’t there? That a quiet woman from the Midwest would shake the literary world not with a roar, but with a whisper—a gentle unraveling of human truths.

To date, she’s authored over 30 novels, and her works have been translated into dozens of languages, read across the globe. She’s been a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award, a recipient of the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, and an ever-present name on bestseller charts—but her real accolade? The thousands of letters from readers who found themselves in her stories.

Lisa Wingate lives in Texas, surrounded by family, nature, and (one imagines) a notebook always within reach. She’s still writing. Still remembering. Still daring to tell stories no one else will.

So here’s the cliffhanger—What forgotten story will she write next? Which history will she resurrect? What truth will she dare to tell, softly, through fiction?

Keep reading. Lisa Wingate isn’t done yet.