Photo Credit: Jennifer Jacobson/City of Vancouver Book Award 2021
News!
My story ‘The Formula’ is in Best Canadian Stories 2026 (ed. Zsuzsi Gartner), out this fall with Biblioasis. You can purchase a copy here.
Bio:
I am a writer born on unceded Musqueam territory in what’s now called Vancouver, British Columbia. I write fiction, prose poetry, and things in between. My first novel, If I Don’t Go Now, is forthcoming from Freehand. I’ve published four books and one chapbook: the short story collection People Who Disappear (Freehand), shortlisted for a Lambda prize for LGBT fiction, the poetry collection The things I heard about you (Nightwood), the story collection We All Need to Eat (Book*hug), shortlisted for a BC Book Prize for fiction, the poetry collection Vancouver for Beginners (Book*hug), shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Prize and winner of the Western Canada Jewish Book Prize for poetry, and a chapbook 20 Objects for the New World (Nomados, out of print). You can buy my books through the links above; they are available in many public libraries.
“Leslie’s writing blends patience and violence…We All Need to Eat is a work of precision. As the stories layer on top of each other, Alex Leslie opens many of urban life’s paradoxes… Leslie’s sometimes hallucinatory writing style teases out the murky threshold where the conscious self meets the body.”
-Canadian Notes and Queries
Recent and forthcoming short stories
“The Formula” in Plenitude (2024). “The Formula” has been selected for Best Canadian Stories (Biblioasis, Fall 2025). Read it here.
“Izzy” in Montreal journal Yolk (2025). You can read it online here.
“Propane, Propane” in Isele (2023). This story won Isele’s 2024 fiction prize and you can read it here.
“Net” in Event (2024)
“Pineapple” in Yolk (2023)
“This Is All I Do Now” is forthcoming in Geist.
More about my writing
My writing has been recognized with a CBC Literary Award, the Dayne Ogilvie Award from the Writers Trust of Canada for LGBTQ2S+ emerging writers, and a Gold National Magazine Award. My short stories have been published in many literary journals in Canada, the US and the UK including Catapult, The Malahat Review, Brick, The Fiddlehead and Isele, and have been included in The Journey Prize anthology (Penguin/Random House), Best Canadian Stories (Biblioasis), and Granta‘s first spotlight issue on contemporary Canadian fiction. My stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and National Magazine Awards for fiction.
I’m particularly proud that my writing has been taught at many universities and colleges including Emily Carr, UBC, OISE, UVic, UFV, Kwantlen and Capilano. My books have been reviewed in publications such as The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The National Post, Xtra West, Canadian Literature, and Autostraddle and featured on CBC’s North by Northwest program. I have taught fiction as a guest faculty at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
I’m a proud member of the Writers Union of Canada. I am a Queer writer of English and Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.
Contact
You can contact me at al.leslie@gmail.com.
I read regularly in and around Vancouver – follow me on Instagram @thisalexleslie for event updates.
I am sometimes hired by writers for manuscript consultations; if you are interested, please email me a description of your project.
Alex Leslie 