Leonora Desar
twitter: @LeonoraDesar
Leonora Desar feels odd writing this in third person (but is secretly enjoying it). Normally, she’s a first-person junkie. She likes writing (and reading) stories with Voice, like Stacey Richter’s collection, My Date with Satan, or Miranda July (anything, even her grocery lists, even in the morning). Leonora is a night owl. Usually, this is when she writes—she would like you to believe this. These days, she’s a video game fiend. Her husband bought her Super Mario for Christmas, and now Leonora isn’t sure if she’s ever going to write again.
When she is writing, she enjoys writing about teenaged girls and strange, middle-aged women. She enjoys surrealism. She likes taking familiar stories and adding oomph to them by say, having a dad made of flame or a naked woman show up at the door.
One of these days, Leonora would like to dabble in realism, write a story that her mom will actually understand (“This makes sense, Lee!”), and get back to writing at the midnight hour. She would also like to beat Super Mario. She would like to ride bumper cars again. She would like to breathe in Coney Island and eat a stupid, insanely delicious hot dog. She would like the pandemic to end, but to keep her COVID comforts: her Buffy crew (go HPC!) and Flash Monsters!!! She would like to hug her mom.
PS: She is currently reading <Redacted!> (non-literary book, not the real title) and cheating on it with Charles Bukowski.
PPS: Not mentioning the above sooner was just an excuse to throw in a PS, and a PPS. Leonora is a fan of these. It reminds her of being a kid and writing letters to herself.
Leonora procrastinates on twitter and by tinkering with leonoradesar.com.
She uploads photos of her dog, her favorite beta listener, on her Insta: leonoradesar.
She says she is taking a hiatus from social media, but she is lying.
Selected Publications:
- On bumper cars: “Leonora’s Road Trip,” No Contact
- On cheating dads: “Fire, Ocean,” TSS Publishing
- On naked women (more cheating dads): “A naked woman shows up at the door,” Black Warrior Review
- On husbands who bury their wives in the backyard: “Aftershave and Soil,” SmokeLong Quarterly
- On friendship and being strange: “Catherine,” Wigleaf
- On mental health, “largeness,” and the minor key: “Minor Key,” Puerto del Sol
- On writing letters to oneself: “When I Was a Teenaged Witch” and “French Fry MFA,” New Flash Fiction Review