Work samples
Share:
About Leslie
Baltimore County
Leslie Harrison is the author of Reck (University of Akron Press, 2023), The Book of Endings (University of Akron Press, 2017), which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and Displacement (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), which won the Bakeless Prize in poetry from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.
She was born in Germany and raised mostly in New Hampshire. She holds graduate degrees from The Johns Hopkins University and The University of California, Irvine. Poems have appeared in numerous journals including Poetry, The New Republic, The… more
Jump to a project:
Dearly Departing
Dearly Departing is going to become (I hope) my third book. The book asks how to love the world and an individual inside of catastrophic changes to the climate and human endeavor. It I became interested, before the pandemic started, in the Bills Of Mortality—aggregations of deaths in the city of London—which were first published during the Plague Years. It seemed to me important to list the ways and kinds of catastrophe that befell individuals then, as a way to talk about it now.
The title tries to capture the sense of both loving and losing, which we are always doing.
I'm drawn to the idea of what can be contained, what can be carried and how those are reflected in our presence, our footprint on the earth. I collect very small objects in my own "cabinet of curiosities" and I build micro-miniatures of landscapes and trees.
The title tries to capture the sense of both loving and losing, which we are always doing.
I'm drawn to the idea of what can be contained, what can be carried and how those are reflected in our presence, our footprint on the earth. I collect very small objects in my own "cabinet of curiosities" and I build micro-miniatures of landscapes and trees.
The Book of Endings
The Book of Endings, published by the University of Akron Press in 2017, was a finalist for the National Book Award.
-
Book of EndingThe judges' citation for the National Book Award says, "In The Book of Endings, Leslie Harrison starts from the beginning, with elemental things—stones, wind, fire, the dark. Someone has left (it might be god), something has ended (it might be the world). It is also as if grammar itself has ended. There is a stuttering toward new meaning—an associative flow, gaps in reason, silence—as if a transistor radio was tuned to the interior of consciousness.
-
Judges' Citation and medal from the National Book AwardsWhen I was a kid, I dreamed, as most of us do, of standing on the podium at the Olympics. The sport was never clear, as I wasn't very good at sports. So imagine the thrill of having this medal hung around my neck in New York City, for the only "sport" I've ever been good at!
-
National Book Awards Reading 2017 | The New SchoolMy reading, limited to 2 minutes, begins at 30:12. This was the National Book Award Finalists Reading at The New School in New York on November 14.
-
Back Cover, The Book of EndingsHero blurbs for the back cover of The Book of Endings
-
Advance PraiseMore writing heroes kindly talking about my book.
Displacement
Displacement, published in 2102 by Mariner Books, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, was the winner of the Bakeless Prize in poetry from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. The Irish-American poet Eavan Boland selected it from a large pool of manuscripts.
Miniatures, making
When I'm not writing, I create tiny dioramas, most featuring trees. Because, as an artist, I'm so deeply engaged with the environment, I have a profound love of trees and water of all sorts. I started doing simple copper wire trees and my practice has evolved to doing elaborate dioramas. The most recently completed one placed a friend's house, about the size of a thumbnail, in a replica of Muir Woods, one of her most beloved forests.
-
IMG_1982.jpgDeciduous tree in autumn
-
Muir Woods1.JPGThe house, as yet unfinished, sits on the banks of a stream in this miniature of Muir Woods. Four inches wide, less than 6 inches tall. Mixed materials.
-
Muir3.JPG
-
test tub.JPGTree house in test tube.
-
cliff.JPGA cliffside dwelling. Two inches tall, mixed media, bark, wood, wire.
-
Watercolor trees.jpgI also occasionally paint.
-
IMG_1587.jpgSmall old tree. Twisted copper wire, bark and slate.