Leigh Newman (born May 15, 1971)Aspen Matis

The Open Bar,

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer of 1998. He enlisted Holly MacArt ...

Blog, April 22, 2013. is an American writer. Her story collection about Alaskan women ''Nobody Gets Out Alive'' was long-listed for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

and the Story Prize. Her memoir , ''Still Points North'', was a finalist for the

National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization ( 501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the National Book Critics C ...

's John Leonard First Book Prize.

Personal life

Newman grew up in

Anchorage Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

, Alaska and

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, Maryland, traveling between the homes of her two parents. Her childhood and remote wilderness experiences were the basis of her memoir ''Still Points North'' (Dial Press, 2013). She received her B.A. from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1993 and her MFA from the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

in 2006.

Career

After working primarily in nonfiction, with articles and essays in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''Vogue'', ''Oprah.com,'' ''

O, The Oprah Magazine ''O, The Oprah Magazine'', also known simply as ''O'', is an American monthly magazine founded by talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Communications. Overview It was first published on April 19, 2000. , its average paid circulation was ...

'' and ''

Bookforum ''Bookforum'' is an American book review magazine devoted to books and the discussion of literature that was based in New York City, New York. The magazine was founded in 1994 and announced in December of 2022 it would cease publishing after ...

,'' she turned to fiction. Her short stories have appeared in '' Harper’s'', ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

,'' ''

One Story ''One Story'' is a literary magazine which publishes 12 issues a year, each issue containing a single short story. The magazine was founded in 2002 by writers Hannah Tinti and Maribeth Batcha. Smith, Dinitia. They offer up to $500 and 25 consumer ...

'',''

'', and '' McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern'' among other magazines. In 2020, her work was recognized in the

Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of ''The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in con ...

, the

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

, The American Society of Magazine Editor's fiction prize for work in the ''Paris Review'', as well awarded the Terry Southern Prize for “humor, wit, and ''sprezzatura''" at the ''Paris Review.'' Newman has received fiction fellowships from the

, the

Atlantic Center for the Arts Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) is a nonprofit, interdisciplinary artists’ community and arts education facility providing artists an opportunity to work and collaborate with contemporary artists in the fields of composing, visual, litera ...

and the Corporation of

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

."2007 Summer Residency Fellows,"
The Edward F. Albee Foundation, 2007. In 2014, she was a

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by ''The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most p ...

Fellow."Authors, novelists, and poets to gather at Bread Loaf Writers' Conference."
Middlebury College, 2014.

Bibliography

Story Collection: *
Nobody Gets Out Alive: Stories
' (2022, Scribner/Simon and Schuster)

Memoir

* ''Still Points North'' (2013,

Dial Press The Dial Press was a publishing house founded in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh. The Dial Press shared a building with ''The Dial'' and Scofield Thayer worked with both. The first imprint was issued in 1924. Authors included Elizabeth Bowen, W. R. Bu ...

)

Collections

* ''Nobody Gets Out Alive: Stories'' (2022
Simon and Schuster)
* ''The Collected Traveler'' book series (2009, Crown) * ''My Parents Were Awesome'' (2011, Villard) * ''One Ring Zero’s The Recipe Project'' (2011, Black Balloon) - co-editor

References

External links

Official website

Official ''Still Points North'' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Leigh 1971 births Living people American essayists American short story writers Stanford University alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni American women essayists 21st-century American women