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The writers in that department write like they never read a book in their lives.
The writers in that department write like they never read a book in their life.
Is the second sentence grammatically correct? Even though the rules of grammar suggest the first is the sentence one should choose, is the second sentence acceptable?
No, the second sentence is never acceptable. "Writers" is plural, so "their lives" must be plural.
Note however that if you were using the gender-neutral singular "they" to refer to a person of unknown, irrelevant, or non-binary gender, the singular "life" would be appropriate, to match with the (in that case) singular "writer."
