Looking ahead
Hello everyone!
Following the November election, I’ve been getting more involved with activism, focusing on reproductive rights, freedom of speech, disability rights, and climate change. I’m volunteering with Authors Against Book Bans and Strong Women, Strange Worlds, and working to support other organizations like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and mutual aid funds. I hope you’re all finding ways of coping, resisting, and being active in supporting rights and safety for everyone in our world.
Upcoming
On December 7, I’ll be teaching Writing About Nature, a 3-hour generative writing workshop open to writers of all levels of experience. We'll talk about how nature writing works in a wide range of genres, from non-fiction to romance to mysteries and speculative fiction and poetry. Sign up here.
On December 11, come hear my new song with composer Angela Slater being workshopped at 1 pm GMT (8 am Eastern) at https://www.youtube.com/live/Xm_J_jYfTTc?si=Ve3_-exvUywCAUC8. Titled "My Skin," it's a new take on selkie lore composed for singer Stephanie Lamprea and cellist Jessica Kerr. Read more here.
I’ll be playing dances and music for the festive season on viol at the Writespace Houston Fantasy Book Ball on December 14. Come say hi in the Writespace Studio and support local authors by buying some books! If you’re not in Houston, go buy books from your local indie bookstore and help it stay in business. Also, you can find my very own bittersweet Christmas ghost story here, and all of my other books here.
Recent
My song “Where It’s Safe” with composer Jessica Rudman is about abortion rights, and Jessica and I are giving away copies of the sheet music to anyone who wants it. Just email me (kendraleonard@pm.me) and I’ll send it to you as a PDF.
My poem "Women Weeping in their Seats: or, Poems After Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things To Me: a Piece in Parts" has been published at IMPOST. This is a really important one for me, so I hope you'll read it. Some of you may recognize elements of it, and if you ever were—or wanted to be—a riot grrrl, you'll know who "K. H." is. Jessica Rudman will be setting it for voice sometime in 2025.
I’ve published my Best Books of 2024 list here. I read almost all of these as eARCs from NetGalley, and they are a mix of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, ranging from fantasy to memoir to history. I gave 59 books 5/5 stars this year, and 4/5 to 22. You can find my reviews on my site by searching for “reviews.” I try to post 6-8 new reviews every few weeks. If you’d be interested in getting a newsletter that is just my book reviews, let me know. If enough people are interested, I can set something up.
Expanding the Canon: Black Composers in the Music Theory Classroom, edited by Melissa Hoag and including my chapter “Teaching Julia Perry’s Homunculus C. F.,” won the 2024 Outstanding Multi-Author Collection award from the Society for Music Theory.
Be well and be kind to one another, friends. Remember that hope is a practice.
Kendra