Leilani Clark

About Me

I am a writer and teacher living in Northern California. My publishing credits include Punk Planet, Clamor Magazine, Women’s Voices, the City Works Press Anthology Sunshine/Noir: Writings from San Diego and Tijuana, The Cleveland Scene, The North Bay Bohemian, Metro Silicon Valley and the Orlando Weekly.

I write short stories starring weird girls, yearning and animal dreams. I am the cofounder of Petals and Bones Writing Workshops.

I have a BA in English Literature from University of California San Diego and an MA in Secondary Education from Western New Mexico University. In 2008, I graduated with a MFA in Writing and Consciousness from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

Outside of writing and teaching, I play guitar and sing back-up in an all-girl indie rock band called Cougar Annie. Reading, walking, baking, and riding bikes are my other favorite ways to pass the days.

Why do you write?

I write because it is a constant and endless challenge, and I like constant and endless challenges, I guess.

Any favorite authors? Books?

Aimee Bender, Joan Didion, Dorothy Allison, Leo Tolstoy, Angela Carter, Virginia Woolf, Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, Sherman Alexie, Lydia Davis, George Saunders, Junot Diaz, James Joyce, Walt Whitman, Michelle Tea, Rebecca Solnit, Aaron Cometbus, Amy Hempel, Mike Davis, Kelly Link, Chris Adrian...

Anna Karenina
An Invisible Sign of My Own
Bastard Out of Carolina
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The Children's Hospital