Work samples

  • Collapse.jpg
    Collapse.jpg
    "Collapse" is a poem from my third book manuscript. The poem was published in the Kenyon Review in the spring of 2020 as part of a special section.
  • parable1.jpg
    parable1.jpg
    This is an excerpt from my poem "Parable of the Maps" published in the summer 2020 issue of Pleiades.
  • seasons.jpg
    seasons.jpg
    This poem, as yet unpublished, is also from my third book manuscript, tentatively titled Apocalypse Box.
  • moon.jpg
    moon.jpg
    Parable of the Moon is a poem, as yet unpublished in a journal, from my third book manuscript.

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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

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. 
  • Bills of Mortality
    Bills of Mortality
    The cover page for a collection of the Bills, which is in the public domain.
  • Apocalypse.pdf
    This is an excerpt from my third book, Apocalypse Box. The four work samples, above, are also from this book.
  • Bills of Mortality
    This is one of the Bills of Mortality that lists causes and numbers of deaths in London, in this case in the year of 1694.

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 Ending
    Book of Ending
    The 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.
  • an excerpt from The Book of Endings
    This is the last few poems from The Book of Endings.
  • Judges' Citation and medal from the National Book Awards
    Judges' Citation and medal from the National Book Awards
    When 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 School
    My 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 Endings
    Back Cover, The Book of Endings
    Hero blurbs for the back cover of The Book of Endings
  • Advance Praise
    Advance Praise
    More 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. 
  • displacement.jpg
    displacement.jpg
  • Blurbs for Displacement
    Blurbs for Displacement
  • Displacement, an excerpt
    This is an excerpt from my first book.

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.jpg
    IMG_1982.jpg
    Deciduous tree in autumn
  • Muir Woods1.JPG
    Muir Woods1.JPG
    The 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
    Muir3.JPG
  • test tub.JPG
    test tub.JPG
    Tree house in test tube.
  • cliff.JPG
    cliff.JPG
    A cliffside dwelling. Two inches tall, mixed media, bark, wood, wire.
  • Watercolor trees.jpg
    Watercolor trees.jpg
    I also occasionally paint.
  • IMG_1587.jpg
    IMG_1587.jpg
    Small old tree. Twisted copper wire, bark and slate.