As a child, Ko and her parents ran a stand at craft shows and flea markets, an experience which later inspired her novel writing process.

[8] Ko earned a master's degree in library and information sciences from San Jose State University in 2005 while working at a film production company.

Established by Barbara Kingsolver, the prize awards $25,000 as well as a book contract for a work of previously unpublished fiction engaging social justice topics.

[27] The Leavers was inspired by a 2009 New York Times story about an undocumented immigrant woman who was held, largely in solitary confinement, for more than a year and a half.

[35] Described as "queer not only in content but in form" and "a book about the triumph of community, friendship, and love," the novel follows three friends, a performance artist, a tech coder, and a housing activist, from the 1980s to the 2040s, using New York City as a microcosm of the larger political economy of the US.

It belongs to an American literary tradition that includes Dana Spiotta, George Saunders, and their patron saint, Don DeLillo: writers whose characters sense that their lives happen at the whim of forces too enormous to understand or evade, but set out to dodge them anyway."

[45] Ko told the Times Union, “I never refused to participate on the panel, and the accusation that I withdrew because the moderator is Jewish, or that I am unwilling to appear onstage with someone who is Jewish, is hurtful and completely false...misinformation that has gone on to foster an increasingly hostile response toward myself and others, including defamation and death threats.”[46] On December 6, 2024, PEN added a lead-in to its updated statement: "An earlier version of this press release responded to reporting that has since been disputed by both Lisa Ko and Aisha Abdel Gawad.

The Writers Institute has also since apologized to all the panel participants for “not treating this programming with the careful consideration it needed and for any consequences they faced as a result.” The press release below has been revised accordingly.

We also condemn the threats and harassment Ko and Gawad have faced in the wake of this incident, as well as loss of livelihood, one instance of which PEN America spoke out against in September."

[2] An open letter organized by Viet Thanh Nguyen calls on the New York State Writers Institute to issue a "full correction" for “the misinformation they circulated” regarding Ko and Gawad.