Leslie What (born Leslie Nelson, 1955) is a writer of fantasy and literary fiction and nonfiction. She grew up in Southern California and attended

Santa Ana College Santa Ana College is a public community college in Santa Ana, California. History In 1915, Santa Ana Junior College opened its doors to 25 students as a department of Santa Ana High School. It was the second community college founded in Oran ...

, and earned a certificate in Vocational Nursing. She also attended

California State University Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

and received her MFA in Writing from

Pacific University Pacific University is a private university in Forest Grove, Oregon. Founded in 1849 as the Tualatin Academy, the original Forest Grove campus is west of Portland. The university maintains three other campuses in Eugene, Hillsboro, and Wo ...

in 2006. She began publishing in 1992 with a story for

Asimov's Science Fiction ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publicatio ...

. In 1999 she won the

Nebula Award for Best Short Story The Nebula Award for Best Short Story is a literary award assigned each year by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy short stories. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a short stor ...

for ''The Cost of Doing Business,'' published in

Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances ...

. Her story collaboration with

Eileen Gunn Eileen Gunn (born June 23, 1945, Dorchester, Massachusetts) is a science fiction author and editor based in Seattle, Washington, who began publishing in 1978. Her story "Coming to Terms", inspired, in part, by a friendship with Avram Davidson, wo ...

, " Nirvana High" was nominated for the 2005

Nebula Award for Best Novelette The Nebula Award for Best Novelette is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) to a science fiction or fantasy novelette. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a novelette if it is between 7,50 ...

. She has published more than 80 short stories and essays, and her work has appeared in ''

Parabola In mathematics, a parabola is a plane curve which is Reflection symmetry, mirror-symmetrical and is approximately U-shaped. It fits several superficially different Mathematics, mathematical descriptions, which can all be proved to define exact ...

'', ''

Lilith Magazine The magazine Lilith is an independent, Jewish- American, feminist non-profit publication that has been issued quarterly since 1976. The magazine features award-winning investigative reports, first-person accounts (both contemporary and historical ...

'', ''The Clackamas Review'', ''

Sci Fiction ''Sci Fiction'' was an online magazine which ran from 2000 to 2005. At one time, it was the leading online science fiction magazine. Published by Syfy and edited by Ellen Datlow, the work won multiple awards before it was discontinued. History ...

'', ''Witpunk'', ''Bending the Landscape'', ''The Mammoth Book of Tales from the Road'', ''

Midstream The oil and gas industry is usually divided into three major components: upstream, midstream and downstream. The midstream sector involves the transportation (by pipeline, rail, barge, oil tanker or truck), storage, and wholesale marketing of crud ...

'', ''

Utne Reader ''Utne Reader'' (also known as ''Utne'') ( ) is a digital digest that collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment, generally from alternative media sources including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music, and ...

'', ''Calyx'', ''Best New Horror'', and other anthologies and magazines. Her collection "Crazy Love" was a finalist for the

Oregon Book Award The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by Literary Arts to honor the "state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers ...

Ken Kesey Fiction award in 2009. What's father was a teenage conscript in Stalin's

Red army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

and spent two years in a POW camp in Stuttgart. He chose the surname "Nelson" after arriving in the United States. Her mother was a German

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

who was interned in the Riga ghetto and a series of work camps in and out of Germany. The stories in her collection, ''The Sweet and Sour Tongue'' incorporat
"elements of science fiction and fantasy into domestic scenes of Jewish family life."
She has written about Jewish practices including the ritual bath Mikveh and preparation of the dead by the volunteer Jewish burial society (

Chevra kadisha The term ''Chevra kadisha'' (Modern Hebrew: חֶבְרָה קַדִּישָׁא) gained its modern sense of "burial society" in the nineteenth century. It is an organization of Jewish men and women who see to it that the bodies of deceased Je ...

).What, Leslie
"Why I Wash the Dead"
in ''New Vilna Review,'' April 18, 2008. What worked as a licensed vocational nurse and later volunteered with the

. She lives in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

and was a contributing writer to the

alternative newspaper An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting l ...

, '' The Eugene Weekly''. She is an instructor at UCLA Extension in The Writers Program (http://www.uclaextension.edu/). She was the senior nonfiction editor for "Silk Road, a literary crossroads" journal, and is a fiction editor. She is the co-editor with R. A. Rycraft of ''Winter Tales: Women Write About Aging'' fro
Serving House Books.

Bibliography

*Sweet and Sour Tongue (2000) *Olympic Games (

Tachyon Publications Tachyon Publications is an independent press specializing in science fiction and fantasy books. Founded in San Francisco in 1995 by Jacob Weisman, Tachyon books have tended toward high-end literary works, short story collections, and anthologies ...

, 2004) *Crazy Love (2008)

References

External links

Leslie What Official SiteInterview at Strange Horizons
*
Interview conducted by Leslie What with Michael ChabonEssay on Mikveh, the Ritual Bath
{{DEFAULTSORT:What, Leslie 1955 births 21st-century American novelists American fantasy writers American science fiction writers American women short story writers American women novelists Living people Nebula Award winners Novelists from Oregon Pacific University alumni Women science fiction and fantasy writers Jewish American novelists 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American Jews