Leanne is an MFA candidate in fiction at Columbia Universerity, and her stories and essays have appeared in Lithub, Aeon Magazine, The Millions, Michigan Quarterly Review, Pleiades Magazine, Gulf Coast Journal, Kyoto Journal, River Teeth/Beautiful Things, Hedgehog Review, Entropy, La Piccioletta Barca, among others.
Awards & Recognition
- Her short story “Bare Bones” won the 2020 Calvino Prize, judged by Joyce Carol Oates
- Bread Loaf Contributor’s Award (Fiction Workshop with Jess Row 2023)
- Her story collection Cabinet of Curiosity was shortlisted in the 2021 Dzanc Books SHORT STORY COLLECTION PRIZE and a finalist for the 2021 Nilsen Prize
- Her novel Excerpt The King’s Painter was long-listed for the The Masters Review 2021 Novel Excerpt Contest
- Her book manuscript Travels Through Paintings was a semifinalist for the Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize judged by Kazim Ali
- Her essay “The Best Picture in the World: On the Piero della Francesca Trail” went to the final judges on the nonfiction shortlist, and “Birdwatching in Oil Paintings” made it to the long-list of the 2022 Disquiet Literary Contest. Judges said this: “Our readers thought that “The Best Picture in the World” was “a lovely, well-researched essay that successfully moves between ekphraksis and the personal. It was a particularly nice change of pace to read a “happy” love story.”
- Her memoir manuscript, Dreaming in Japanese, was nominated by faculty and then short-listed for the 2023 Allegra Johnson Award at UCLA EXtension
Residencies and Workshops
- 2023 Bread Loaf (Fiction)
- 2023 Sewanee Writers Workshop (Fiction)
- 2026 Tin House (Fiction)
- 2025 Bread Loaf (Poetry/Ishion Hutchinson)
- 2025 Sewanee Writers Workshop (Poetry/Donika Kelly)
- 2025 Residency Awards at the Vermont Studio Center
- 2025 VCCA Artist Residency
- 2024 Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, in Taos
Publications
- Fiction & Essays LitHub · Aeon · The Millions · Michigan Quarterly Review · Pleiades · Gulf Coast Journal · River Teeth / Beautiful Things · The Hedgehog Review · Entropy · Dillydoun Review · The Rumpus · Kyoto Journal
- Essay and an interview she wrote about Japanese culture is included in Ma: The Japanese Secret to Contemplation and Calm: An Invitation to Awareness (Tuttle Press) with Pico Iyer and Alex Kerr
- Academic (peer-reviewed) essay about Tokyo published in Cities and Identities, edited by Daniel Bell and Avner de Shalit, published by Routledge.
- Poetry & Translation La Piccioletta Barca · The Dewdrop · Ekphrastic JournalOne poetry translation from the Japanese was included in the 2024 Lunar Codex Moon Launch — a time capsule mission to the South Pole of the moon.
- Original poetry has appeared in La Piccioletta Barca, the Dewdrop, and Ekphrastic Journal. Her translations of poetry from the Japanese have appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals and one was included in a 2024 moon launch, as part of the Lunar Codex Mission to the South Pole of the moon. 2025 Bread Loaf and Sewanee in poetry
