Biography
Leslie Schwartz is an award-winning, best-selling literary novelist with two novels and dozens of short stories, articles and essays under her belt. Critics call her work “provocative” and “harshly beautiful,” and have said “she writes with heat-hazed elegance and subtle control.” Her work explores themes of love, grief and spiritual transformation. Schwartz is a passionate speaker, teacher, and tireless promoter of literacy in underserved communities. She is President of the Board of Directors for the nonprofit literary organization, PEN USA.
In 2004, she was named Kalliope Magazine’s Woman Writer of the Year. Her first novel Jumping the Green, (Simon & Schuster 1999) won the James Jones Literary Society Award for Best First Novel. Her second novel Angels Crest, (Doubleday 2004) was a Los Angeles Times bestseller, a Booksense 76 pick, was translated into nine languages and was optioned for film.
Schwartz teaches creative writing at Juvenile Hall, in underserved middle and high school communities and at Homeboy Industries, an employment referral center and economic development program for at-risk and gang-involved youth. She is also currently in the process of establishing a literary magazine and press at Homeboy.
She teaches writing at UCLA extension, the Iowa Summer Writers Festival and at various writers conferences throughout the United States.