Leslie McGrath Poet, editor, literary interviewer

About Me

Leslie McGrath
Stonington, CT
Member since: Aug, 2008
Last login: 08/20/2008
Last update : 08/18/2008
Contact Me

Leslie McGrath originally trained as a clinical psychologist and came to poetry after the age of forty. A Connecticut native, she was the first woman in her family to graduate from college. She took her grandmother's maiden name as a way of paying tribute to the line of seamstresses and washerwomen from which she came.

Leslie's original literary training was based in Spanish language literature, which contributed to the primacy of rhythm and sound in her poetry. She won the Pablo Neruda prize in poetry in 2004 and the Philbrick chapbook award in 2007. A graduate of the Bennington Writing Seminars, her poems have been published widely throughout the United States, as well as in Japan, Ireland, and India (in translation.)

She is the co-managing editor at Drunken Boat. Unaffiliated with a university, she works as an integrative health counselor.

thinking about thinking* thinking about the centrality of food (both literally and metaphorically)*thinking about the nature of female sexuality*thinking about the way artists' work and lives are regarded as either joined or separate depending on the cycle of history*trying to enjoy things other than my work obsessions*failing miserably at that last one*thinking about why work is so pleasurable*thinking about thinking

early Robert Lowell, Machado, Szymborska, Milosz, Jane Hirshfield, ee cummings (yep),Reetika Vazirani, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Chad Davidson.

"Dark Familiar" by Aleda Shirley The Ramayana "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan The Sunday New York Times from a week ago Reetika Vazirani's last poems

Leslie works as an integrative health counselor because not all poets should work from within the academy!

Graduate College/University	Bennington Writing Seminars, class of 2006
Graduate Area of Study	poetry and literature
Undergraduate College/University	Bowdoin College, class of 1980
Undergraduate Area of Study	Romance languages and psychology
High School	Roger Ludlowe High School, class of 1976
Academic Credentials	MA (psychology) MFA (poetry and literature)