Name Louise Leonard Role Novelist | Books Since You Ask: A Novel | |
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Louise Wareham Leonard (born Louise Wareham) is a New Zealand born American writer of British and Maori descent. She immigrated with her family to New York City in 1977. Her books and writings concern family sexuality, sexual abuse, the interior lives of women and relationships between men and women. Set often in Manhattan, as well as New Zealand, they explore "the search for sanity"(Dame Fiona Kidman) in a world of "priapic narcissism" (Stout Scholar John Newton).She hosts the 2016 founded podcast 52 Men: Women Telling Stories about Men. She is a founding member of the New Zealand Academy of Literature and, as an American citizen, winner of the James Jones First Novel Award.
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Early life
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Leonard immigrated to New York City in 1977 with her family. She attended The Dalton School and The United Nations International School and was graduated from Columbia College, New York, with a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Society. She has in MA in Creative Writing from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Career
Leonard first wrote for periodicals, beginning as an intern reporter at age 15 in Manhattan, and a junior reporter at 17 and 18 at the capital city newspaper in New Zealand. At 20, she was an intern in the New York bureau at TIME. As an adult, she lived and worked (see below) in places such as Mississippi, New Zealand, New York, Europe, the Caribbean and outback Western Australia.
In 1999, she won the American James Jones Literary Society's First Novel Award for her work-in-progress Since You Ask. She was twice a finalist for New Zealand's Prize in Modern Letters (2006, 2008) and is a Founding Member of the New Zealand Academy of Literature (2016).
Leonard has worked as the assistant to the Vice Chairman of Smith Barney, followed by Black Liberation Founder Reverend Professor James H Cone at the Union Theological Seminary and then the Vermont Studio Center arts colony.
She co-established a non-for-profit aboriginal-owned art center based in Mt Magnet (pop 500) in outback Western Australia; named Wirnda Barna,the center supports five regions located on Badimaya and Wadjarri country in Western Australia's Upper Murchison region. She also worked at the Mines Department as an officer for mining, the courts and the local DMV.
She hosts 52 Men the Podcast: Women Telling Stories About Men.
Creative writing
Leonard was discovered by Poetry in 1995; Her first novel, Since You Ask won the James Jones Literary Society First Novel Award and was published by Akashic Books, New York in 2004. Her second novel, Miss Me A Lot Of was published in 2007 in New Zealand. Her third 52 Men, (Red Hen Press, 2015) is a humorous work of metafiction drawing on her romantic life and imagination. With blurbs from writers Will Eno and Kurt Andersen, it also contains cameos of public figures including Jonathan Franzen, Michael Stipe, Lou Reed and Jay Carney. It is reviewed in essay by Amanda Fortini in the Spring 2016 Los Angeles Review of Books. Leonard has also published in various literary magazines and is a reader for the journal Tin House.
Private life
Leonard is one of four siblings, one of whom is musician and writer Dean Wareham. She is married to Investigative Editor with USAToday network Matthew Leonard.