Hi, I’m Laurel Leigh

I’m a writer, teacher and editor and freelance internationally.

With in-house book publishing credentials as well as twenty years as a freelance editor for clients in the U.S. and Sweden, my skills as a structural editor and script doctor are highly sought by multiple publishers, producers and individual authors. I have acted as project manager for numerous titles published by Chronicle Books, including the Flavors of Aloha series with renowned brand Tommy Bahama; Family Spirit with William Grant & Sons (Glenfiddich); and The Seven Stars Cookbook with Caesar’s Entertainment, which received a Gourmand World Cookbook Award. Recent editing projects for Dallas, TX–based BenBella Books include the hit titles Up in Arms by American Pain author John Temple; The Menendez Murders by journalist Robert Rand; Strange Survivors by science author Oné R. Pagán; NeuroScience Fiction by U.K.–based neuroscientist Rodrigo Quian Quiroga; and the high-profile memoirs RatSnakes by retired ATF undercover agent Vincent A. Cefalu, and Baby, Don’t Hurt Me by former Saturday Night Live star Chris Kattan.

My writing doesn’t subscribe to a single genre. Both my memoir and fiction have featured in the acclaimed magazine The Sun, where my story “Shoeless” earned notable mention in Best of the West. My essay “Nursey” garnered a Pushcart nomination after appearing in Clover, A Literary Rag. A recent essay “Beating the Train” (anthologized by Z Publishing House) was inspired by wandering the streets of Fargo, North Dakota. I’ve had the good fortune to live and write in the Pacific Northwest, the San Francisco Bay Area and most recently the Midwest, where I’m writing a sci-fi noir series inspired by some guys I saw one night on glowy hoverboards.

I have taught writing classes since 2005 and also mentor individual authors. My approach to teaching creative writing incorporates multiple storytelling perspectives, encouraging writers to draw inspiration and technique from written stories as well as the visual language of film, the spoken art of live theater and the movement-based narrative of dance. For my creative contributions and service to the writing community in Bellingham, WA—including helping to found the popular Chuckanut Writers Conference—I received the prestigious Mayor’s Arts Award.

I hold a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Journalism from Gonzaga University. Wherever I fire up my laptop, It’s a Good Day to Write.