Lisa Dickey's Blog

I’m thrilled to announce that on May 14, 2024, Hachette  will publish The Situation Room, by George Stephanopoulos with Lisa Dickey. George was an absolute dream to work with, and the book is a riveting popular history of one of the most secretive spaces in American government. You can preorder the book here.

Advance praise from Booklist:

This book opens with a new perspective on the events of January 6, 2021: that of Mike Stiegler, a White House Situation Room officer, who stepped out of his car at 4:20 a.m. that day and thought, “This doesn’t feel right.” The Situation Room, or Sit Room, is a 5,000-square-foot operations center on the ground floor of the West Wing. Created in 1961 to be a communications hub amid national crises, it epitomizes the expression “if these walls could talk.” And if anyone can coax confessions out of them, it is political commentator and former White House communications director Stephanopoulos.

Putting himself, gonzo-style, at the center of the action, he takes the reader on a thrilling tour of this little known but crucial facet of the United States government.

Book collaboration is a fascinating and ever-changing art. Each author is different, and each book a puzzle we figure out together. I love exploring authors’ motivations for writing their books, diving deep into who they are, then guiding them in how to get their thoughts on the page. I’m a storyteller at heart, and I feel lucky to have helped some of the most intriguing, accomplished and eminent people in the world tell their stories.

My clients have come from all walks of life, including the worlds of music, business, politics, movies and TV. From First Lady Jill Biden to jazz great Herbie Hancock, from California Governor Gavin Newsom to gospel singer (and mother of Whitney Houston) Cissy Houston, from entrepreneur Sheila Johnson to the actor Patrick Swayze, I’ve had the good fortune to meet and work with some truly inspiring people.

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Selected acknowledgments from authors:  

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George Stephanopoulos , The Situation Room: 

“Lisa Dickey is the Platonic ideal of a co- writer. Curious, diligent, always upbeat. She has a quick pen, a clear mind and an open heart. I couldn’t—and wouldn’t—have written this book without her.”

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Tammy Duckworth , Every Day is a Gift: 

“There’s no way this book would have gotten written were it not for my collaborator, Lisa Dickey, who devoted so much energy to learning my voice… No one else could’ve made this book speak the way you have. Thank you.”

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Jill Biden,  Where the Light Enters: 

“Thank you to Lisa Dickey, who listened to my stories for hours and hours and hours. She skillfully shaped the framework for all of my stories, providing invaluable perspective. Lisa is a master of her craft. Ultimately, she offered friendship, and for that I am grateful.”

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Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi, The Time of My Life: 

“It took a lot of work to bring this book together, and it wouldn’t be what it is without the help of Lisa Dickey. Her focus, suggestions, and skill at helping shape a story are fantastic. She is a joy to work with, and we’d work with her again in a heartbeat.”

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Cissy Houston,  Remembering Whitney:

“Lisa Dickey – thank you for giving yourself to this book just when we needed you. I appreciate your tireless efforts more than I can say.”

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Gavin Newsom, Citizenville: 

“I had the joy and delight of working and collaborating with Lisa Dickey – I could not have asked for a better partner throughout this project.”

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Roberta Kaplan, Then Comes Marriage:

“This book would never have happened had Lisa Dickey not come to me a year ago and proposed to help me chronicle our journey on the Windsor case. I am so grateful to her for creating order out of disorder and for helping me to find my voice.”

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Cathie Black, Basic Black: 

“Lisa Dickey, my collaborator, was the perfect choice. She sat with me for dozens of hours, attended speeches and meetings, and talked to friends and colleagues, all the while pulling stories and ideas from the far reaches of my mind, some of which were cobwebbed over. But she was always there with a ready laugh or a shake of the head, and she always told me when something didn’t make sense or when there wasn’t enough of a lesson in the story. She kept an even keel throughout it all and somehow managed to deliver the book on time, despite a move to Los Angeles during the final editing.”

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Bob Baer, The Devil We Know: 

“This book could not have been written without Lisa Dickey, editor, book doctor, skeptic, and invaluable scold. Every morning I turned on my computer to find an email from her challenging one thing or another. “Why should the reader care?” she’d ask. Lisa made sure that irrelevant trivia, which so often find their way into books written by people who spend their lives in the Middle East, stayed out, and she put everything neatly in order.”

I’ve had a busy couple of years since my own book, Bears in the Streets, came out in 2017, and I’m very proud to reveal my newest book collaborations, all released this year:

*  Mindf*ck, by Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie: The incredible inside story of the Facebook data mining and psychological manipulation that led to the passage of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump.

* Where the Light Enters, by former Second Lady Jill Biden: An intimate look at the love that built the Biden family and the delicate balancing act of the woman at its center.

* The Right Answer, by Democratic presidential candidate John K. Delaney: A passionate call for bipartisan action, entrepreneurial innovation, and a renewed commitment to the American idea.

Three very different books, all with vital and timely messages. A big thank you, as always, to my clients — and thank you all for reading and supporting our work.

In May, I had the pleasure of joining a spectacular group of speakers including Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Evan McMullin, Laurene Powell Jobs, Dean Baquet and Jill Soloway at the 2017 Code Conference. Check out the full video here:

A big thank-you to Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg for the invitation to speak — and for listing us all in alphabetical order in the program, so I could enjoy the geek thrill of being right next to HRC:

Back in 1997, I helped Kara Swisher write her first book:  AOL.COM, the story of a then-small tech company that was changing the way we communicate. Working with Kara marked the start of a career helping people to write nonfiction books –from ghostwriting to “book doctoring” and everything in between.

Over the past twenty years, my clients have included people from all walks of life, including the worlds of music, business, politics, movies and TV. From jazz great Herbie Hancock, to California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, to gospel singer (and mother of Whitney Houston) Cissy Houston, to civil rights champion Roberta Kaplan, to the actor Patrick Swayze, I’ve had the good fortune to meet and work with some truly inspiring people.

This year marks the start of my third decade as a ghostwriter and book collaborator. I can hardly wait to see who I’ll be working with next…

Here it is! The whole story of Bears in the Streets, told in two minutes:

The Booklist review is in, and it’s better than a basketful of puppies. Read on:

“The title refers to Russians saying ruefully that Americans think they are so backward that bears roam their streets. Dickey proves this isn’t so by portraying people from a variety of locations across Russia, from Vladivostok to Novosibirsk to Moscow, in 1995, 2005, and 2015.

More than a neat conceit, this is a delightful depiction of passing time in a place many Americans and others fear, admire, or despise. Quite the storyteller and traveling companion, Dickey shares colorful anecdotes of teaching new Russian friends poker, slaughtering a sheep for dinner, and admiring how the setting sun plays off a Lenin statue. She also muses on how social media have made her travels and interactions so much easier.

Filled with then-and- now photographs, Dickey’s travelogue is truly heartwarming, drawing strength from the honesty and openness of the people she visits and revisits and opening windows on the opinions of the Russian people on nearly everything, from homosexuality to Putin. Fascinating and a balm to readers enduring the current xenophobic plague.”

— Eloise Kinney

Kirkus Reviews has weighed in on Bears in the Streets, calling it a “spirited account” and “an affecting travelogue that reveals true Russian personality.” Click here to read the whole thing.

This is the first review for Bears, and Kirkus can be notoriously tough, so if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go dance a little jig now.

Kirkus Reviews has weighed in on Bears in the Streets, calling it a “spirited account” and “an affecting travelogue that reveals true Russian personality.” Click here to read the whole thing.

This is the first review for Bears, and Kirkus can be notoriously tough, so if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go dance a little jig now.

“Lisa Dickey has chosen an inspired way to tell a most fascinating story about the evolution of modern Russia. Bears in the Streets is brilliant, real and readable.”

– Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

“Dickey weaves a lively, heartfelt, and engrossing account spanning a dramatic period of Russian history.  Her tales from Vladivostok to Moscow remind us of the human element so often obscured by geopolitics – an important contribution at a critical moment for Russia and the world.”

– Ambassador William J. Burns, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

“BEARS is impossible to put down. Fueled by a deep curiosity and with the skilled eye of a world class journalist, Dickey peels back superficial stereotypes and shares her discoveries and her surprises. ”

– New York Times best selling author Rick Smolan, creator of the “Day in the Life” book series

“Lisa Dickey’s sharply realized memoir is a meditation on time, friendship and the boundaries we create as well as those we cross. In thoughtful, often-hilarious, and always page-turning prose, she brings us with her across Russia over the course of twenty years. At a moment where the incurious lead political conversations, Dickey’s simple act of engagement is a radical one.”

― Sarah Wildman, journalist and author of Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind

Click here for more information about Bears in the Streets, or here to purchase.