Meet Carrboro Debut Novelist Elisa Faison, Author of the Buzzy “Skin Contact”
By Pamir Kiciman
It’s been a wild few months for Carrboro author Elisa Faison. Her debut novel, Skin Contact (Cardinal, June 2026), quickly attracted literary buzz. A tour of some bookstores in the Southeast followed almost immediately. She feels incredibly lucky that the book had a good critical response.
“There's such a long wait between selling the manuscript and seeing the finished book out in the world,” she told The Carrborean.“I sold Skin Contact in September 2024, and it just came out.”
Faison grew up in Alabama, and after her undergraduate studies at Sewanee, earned a PhD in Contemporary American Fiction from UNC-Chapel Hill.
“I chose UNC in part because of its good focus on modern and contemporary literature and in part because I was drawn to Carrboro.” So much so that she didn’t leave, and it’s where she now lives with her partner and two-year-old twins.
Audiobooks become available at the same time as physical books, and that was a “fun part of the anticipation period,” Faison said. “I got to speak a lot with my audio editor and listen to actor auditions.”
Skin Contact is about Frances and Ben, a young married couple who open their relationship after Frances is shaken by the sudden death of her mother. What begins as an exciting exploration of sex, desire, and nonmonogamy gradually becomes more complicated as new lovers enter their lives and Ben falls in love with another woman just as Frances begins thinking about motherhood.
During the book tour, “Many people shared their stories with me — their own losses and experiences with grief, in addition to their coming-out stories or their experiences with open relationships,” Faison mentioned. “That's been one of the best parts of the book being out; hearing what it has meant to others who, in some way or another, see themselves in the book.”
On her writing days, she often writes for hours. “When I'm actively writing a book, I do try to write every day during the week.” Sitting down to write as soon as she can after getting the kids ready for daycare and having coffee, she gets sucked into a project and has trouble coming out of it. “But I'm also always balancing writing with my other work. I'm a freelance editor, so some days are editing days.”
Her influences and favorite writers include Lorrie Moore, Meg Mason, Lily King, and Miranda July. She explained that she likes how Moore and Mason simultaneously convey sadness and humor in a few short sentences; King’s ability to convey something enormous by describing something very small; and July for her frankness when it comes to writing about sex and desire. “All four of these writers take girlhood, womanhood, and romance seriously, without throwing out the silliness.”
Faison’s current audiobook is Lovers XXX (Ali Rowbottom) and she’s about to read Take What You Can (Naima Coster) in print. This led to a conversation about reading habits and if audiobooks count as reading.
“I don't think we've ever moved away from reading. Forms of reading or forms of learning about books are always changing.” She doesn’t know whether audiobooks are the same as reading in print. “What I know for sure is that I love to read books, and my children love to read books. Reading is about engaging with a story and experimenting with new perspectives.”
Writing since she was a child, Faison knew she wanted to be an English major in college but thought it was a bit childish to aspire to be a writer. “I decided to become an English professor instead, which is why I pursued a PhD. But the longer I was in academia, the more I missed reading for fun and writing for fun.”
She began writing a novel as a distraction as she was writing her dissertation and realized how much she wanted to pursue writing as a career. “I feel very lucky that it worked out!”
Faison has finished her second novel, which is currently in publication talks. She hopes to say more about it soon.
Skin Contact is available at Golden Fig Books in the Carr Mill Mall, 200 N. Greensboro St.