Louise Wareham Leonard

Louise Wareham Leonard (born Louise Wareham 24 March 1965)[1] is an American

novelist and writer. Her three books concern family sexuality, sexual abuse, the interior

lives of women and relationships between men and women. Set often in Manhattan,

they also explore “the search for sanity in a world in which money is both everything and

nothing.” (Dame Fiona Kidman).

Early Life

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Leonard immigrated to New York City in 1977 with

her family. She attended 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 represented Columbia in the Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry

Contest, and was awarded the Andrew D Fried Memorial Prize for excellence in critical

and creative writing.

Career

Under her maiden name, Leonard wrote for newspapers and magazines, beginning as

an intern reporter at age15 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 in places such as Mississippi, New Zealand, New

York, Europe, the Caribbean and outback Western Australia.

Creative Writing

Leonard was discovered by Poetry in 1995 under her maiden name Louise Wareham;

her first novel, Since You Ask, also under this name, 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 under the name Louise Wareham

Leonard in 2007 in New Zealand where it was a bestseller.

Leonard’s third novel, 52 Men is a humorous work of metafiction drawing on her

romantic life and imagination. It is forthcoming from Red Hen Press in September 2015.

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.

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 public media editor Matthew Leonard.

She works as a private editor of fiction and prose.

References

www.louisewarehamleonard.com

New Zealand Book Council:

Luxury (Akashic Books)

Why I Left the 12 Step Movement