Leslie Youngblood received an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She’s been awarded a host of writing honors including a 2014 Yaddo’s Elizabeth Ames Residency, the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Prize, a Hurston Wright Fellowship, and the Room of Her Own Foundation’s 2009 Orlando Short Story Prize. Her short story, “Poor Girls’ Palace,” was published in the winter 2009 edition of the Indiana Review, as well as Kwelijournal, 2014. In 2010 she won the Go On Girl! Book Club Aspiring Writer Award. Her first Middle Grade novel, LOVE LIKE SKY, will be published in 2018. Born in Bogalusa, LA, and raised in Rochester, NY, she is fortunate to have a family of natural storytellers and a circle of supportive and family and friends.