Liisa Kovala is a Finnish Canadian author and book coach. Her latest novel, Like Water for Weary Souls (House of Karhu, 2025) won a Global Book Award in the Women's Fiction category and received an Ontario Arts Council (OAC) Literary Creation Project Grant. Her debut novel, Sisu's Winter War (Latitude 46), for which she also received a Literary Creation Project Grant was published in 2022. Liisa's first book, Surviving Stutthof: My Father’s Memories Behind the Death Gate (Latitude 46, 2017) was shortlisted for a Northern Lit Award and published in Finland under the title Stutthofin selviytyjä (Docendo, 2020). Her most recent historical works-in-progress,The Weeping Tree and On Sorrow Island were both made possible by OAC Grants.

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Liisa is a member of the The Writers' Union of Canada, the Canadian Authors Association, Historical Novel Society, president of the Toronto Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and past president of the Sudbury Writers' Guild. She earned a graduate certificate in Creative Writing with distinction from Humber School for Writers and a Creative Writing Certificate from the University of Toronto.  

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Liisa's work is inspired by her Finnish heritage and the northern landscape she calls home. A nearly empty nester of two adult children, she lives in Sudbury, Ontario with her husband and puppy Emmy.