Leslie Sainz
twitter: @lesannsai
Leslie Sainz is a first-generation Cuban American poet and editor born and raised in Miami, Florida. A CantoMundo Fellow, she received her MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was the Editor-in-Chief of Devil’s Lake. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from jubilat, Narrative, Black Warrior Review, Ninth Letter, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Journal, The Florida Review, and others. She’s received scholarships and residencies from The Miami Writers Institute, The Adroit Journal, and the Hub City Writers Project. Most recently, she was a 2018-2019 Stadler Fellow at Bucknell University.
Leslie’s manuscript in-progress explores the historical tragedies of the Republic of Cuba and their relationships to myth, ritual, and resistance. Her work seeks to honor the traditions of her diasporic ancestry while confronting the tourist’s gaze head-on.
In her spare time, Leslie makes handmade candles and soaps. She’s in the process of establishing a freelance poetry editing and consultation service for chapbook manuscripts and full-length manuscripts.
Her favorite authors include: Jean Valentine, Hoa Nyugen, Federico García Lorca, Mary Szybist, Ross Gay, Monica Youn, Rick Barot, Louise Glück, Kim Hyesoon, and Lucie Brock-Broido.
She just finished reading Alicia Jo Rabins’ Divinity School and is now moving through Kim Hyesoon’s The Autobiography of Death, translated by Don Mee Choi; Aase Berg’s Hackers, translated by Johannes Göransson; and Maria Hummel’s House and Fire.
website: lesliesainz.com
selected publications: