Hi y'all!
I’m Leesa Cross-Smith, God’s little creature from Kentucky. An INFJ, a highly sensitive person, a Janeite, a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, a plant lover and cozy advocate. I am Southern and sentimental and easily startled. I love Jesus and being peculiar and love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Bind my wandering heart to Thee. I’m a homemaker, a wife, a mama, an artist, a woman of letters. I write books. I love my bearded husband & our little babies & stuff like: tenderness, coziness, hygge, knitting, clogs, cowboys, moonlight, starlight, sunlight, making pies, ornithology, Birkenstocks, Dr. Martens, Stan Smiths, being a Hufflepuff, haberdashery, Kim Namjoon! Kim Seokjin! Min Yoongi! Jung Hoseok! Park Jimin! Kim Taehyung! Jeon Jungkook! BTS! 방탄소년단 International KPop Sensation Sunshine Rainbow Traditional Transfer USB Hub Shrimp BTS, Bangtan Sonyeondan everysingleday bc joy joy joy and soothing comfort and light in a dark world (!!! I love them all so much and everylittlething abt them so much. 💜ARMY 💜), BTS eating, BTS sleeping, BTS lols, BTS in their prettiest clothes/jewelry, BTS in their pajamas, the Bangtan Universe, just…EVERYTHING BTS and I could keep going on and on but there’s not enough room so, 꽃, flower, flowerwork, GOT7, Lim Jaebeom, Mark Tuan, Jackson Wang, Park Jinyoung, Choi Youngjae, Kunpimook Bhuwakul, and Kim Yugyeom, 2PM, Jun. K, Nichkhun, Taecyeon, Wooyoung, Junho (!), and Chansung, Seventeen! S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, DK, Mingyu, The8, Seungkwan, Vernon, and Dino, my KPop girls (Le Sserafim! New Jeans! Twice! IVE! aespa! Red Velvet! and and and!) …just everything KPop (!) Forever…color healing comfort cuteness sweetness love, IU, DMB, Stormzy + loving Stormzy, Lianne La Havas + her weird fishes, Father John Misty's hands, Father John Misty dancing, Father John Misty pulls up to the Chateau Marmont in a rented Hyundai, Just, Father John Misty in gen, George Michael, Counting Crows, Caleb Followill’s voice, Park Seojoon’s face and KDrama wardrobes and any/everything abt him and any/everything he’s in, Gong Yoo’s face and kisses and KDrama wardrobes and any/everything abt him and any/everything he’s in, Jung Haein’s face and KDrama wardrobes and any/everything abt him and any/everything he’s in, Park Jinyoung’s face and KDrama wardrobes and any/everything abt him and any/everything he’s in, Lee Junho’s speaking voice and face and KDrama wardrobes and any/everything abt him and any/everything he’s in, 위하준, 박형식’s ears, 박보검’s face+, 지창욱 in/doing anything, Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys + Welsh, ABBA, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, "Try A Little Tenderness," "Africa" by Toto, Kip Moore, The Avett Brothers, California, Tracy Chapman, Mitski, Jeff Buckley, “Free Fallin” + the lyrics to “Free Fallin’” + covers of “Free Fallin’,” Hayley Williams's singing voice, The Civil Wars, American History, Ken Burns’s The Civil War, Shelby Foote talking abt The Civil War, Ken Burns’s Baseball, Ken Burns’s docus in gen, world history, comfy Studio Ghibli movies, Hayao Miyazaki, Lucy Worsley, Art Deco, Roman Holiday and Sabrina, Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, Ella Fitzgerald, Ella Fitzgerald + Louis Armstrong, Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Japanese literature, Nora Ephron movies (I love you), Alfredo James Pacino, Alfredo James Pacino as Michael Corleone, The Godfather movies, Al Pacino’s perfect (face! and!) wardrobe in Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Frankie and Johnny, Lana Del Rey, Francis + Zelda, The Great Gatsby, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Cher, Paul Newman, James Bond movies/James Bond title sequences, Daniel Craig/Daniel Craig in clothes/Daniel Craig’s eye contact in movies, Moneypenny, Bond + Moneypenny’s relationship, Sylvia Plath's letters & journals, Badlands, Sissy Spacek’s wardrobe in Badlands, Steve McQueen, Steve McQueen's wardrobe in The Thomas Crown Affair, the chess/kissing scene in The Thomas Crown Affair and also Steve McQueen's plush orange robe in The Thomas Crown Affair, Old Hollywood, old-timey musicals, "Cheek to Cheek," Nina Simone, Elvis Presley, all Marilyn Monroe everything, Some Like It Hot, Chanel No. 5, Santal 33, etc, The Secret History, hands-in-pockets Jim Halpert, Aidan Turner & Aidan Turner’s smile/speaking voice/accent + hair, Michael Dorman’s speaking/singing voice, Michael Dorman’s face/smile, Your Eyes Tell, Nordic Noir, Lisbeth Salander, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, +“I like working with you/I like working with you too”, Sandra Bullock, Sandra Bullock movies, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, watching Park Jinyoung dance, Kim Minkyu’s dimple, Ben Covington, Jess Mariano, too many tv shows (but I really love too many KDramas…so much and so many I can’t add them all here!, BTS: In the Soop, BTS: Bon Voyage, Run BTS, 이태원 클라쓰/Itaewon Class, 쌈 마이웨이/Fight For My Way, 마녀의 연애/A Witch’s Love, 밥 잘 사주는 예쁜 누나/Something In The Rain, 유미의 세포들/Yumi’s Cells, 그 해 우리는/Our Beloved Summer, 봄밤/One Spring Night, 설강화/Snowdrop, 화랑/Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth, 나의 해방일지/My Liberation Notes, 사이코지만 괜찮아/It’s Okay Not To Be Okay, 쓸쓸하고 찬란하神 – 도깨비/Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, 사내 맞선/Business Proposal, 갯마을 차차차/Hometown Cha Cha Cha, 킹더랜드/King the Land, Abbott Elementary, Ginny & Georgia, Sorry For Your Loss, Bron/Broen, Derry Girls, Peaky Blinders (!!!), Sanditon, Dickinson, Plan Cœur, and You right now. Felicity, The Office, Poldark, Beef, Wonderland, New Girl, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Globe Trekker, The Night Manager, Lost, Friday Night Lights, Mozart In The Jungle, Downton Abbey, Broad City, Patriot, Gran Hotel, Justified, Happy Endings, Seinfeld, Doctor Foster, Fleabag, Lovesick, and Graceland are my oldskool/not on anymore/forever favorites), 리틀 포레스트, リトル・フォレスト, 海街 diary, Felicity sweaters, kimchi, eating berries w chopsticks, radishes + butter + flaky sea salt, Dune, mumblecore, dreampop, playing The Sims, negative capability, the soothing ritual of my skincare routine, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, vitamin c, rose caviar essence, K-beauty, overnight masks (&c), dreaming of a beauty fridge, flower waters, rose water, clementine + honey, the names of flowers/plants + lyrics to "Find The River" by R.E.M.: ocean storm, bayberry moon...bergamot and vetiver...of ginger, lemon, indigo, coriander stem and rose of hay, all lavender everything, Haim, "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King & "I Hear A Symphony" by The Supremes, "In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning," "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World, Tim Riggins Tim Riggins Tim Riggins and the comfort of Taylor Kitsch on my TV, Coach + Tami Taylor, my 20+ year crush on Josh Hartnett + Josh Hartnett’s speaking voice, Paddington, Julia Roberts, Julia Louis-Dreyfus + Elaine Benes (and her wardrobe), Wilco, words words words words words, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Donnie Darko, p much any movie I was obsessed w in high school or college, Gwendolyn Brooks, Faye Wong, The Cranberries, Kate Bush + “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” and “Wuthering Heights,” The Brontë sisters, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Edward Rochester, Cathy & Heathcliff, Byronic heroes, Dario Marianelli, period pieces, tricorns, Ross + Demelza Poldark, cravats, Regency clothing, Austenites, Jane Austen, every Jane Austen adaptation, Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Sense & Sensibility, Death Comes To Pemberley, Becoming Jane, Mansfield Park, Austenland &c, Matthew Rhys as Mr. Darcy, Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy, JJ Feilds as Mr. Tilney, Tilney’s keen knowledge of muslin, Theo James as Sidney Parker + his speaking voice, everyone on Sanditon &c, Jonny Lee Miller as Mr. Knightley, Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet, Keira’s green dress in Atonement, and Atonement in gen before Briony walks into the library, the Twilight movies, Luke from Lovesick, the Harry Potter series, musicals, Hamilton and #hamiltrash, Leslie Odom singing "Wait For It," Sufjan Stevens, Fiona Apple, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Nicks + Lindsey Buckingham staring @/singing to each other, Oscar Isaac/Oscar Isaac singing in 10 Years/Oscar Isaac singing Bon Iver, Japanese Breakfast, musical/theatre ppl, Zazie Beetz + Zazie Beetz's hair, Vincent van Gogh, Kim Bodnia’s laugh, Charlie Hunnam, Harry & Meghan, Princess Diana + Princess Diana’s style, 한국 영화, Burning, Steven Yeun, Jean Luc-Godard + cinéma français, Chungking Express, Tony Leung, Wong Kar-Wai films, Wong Kar-Wai’s eye for beauty, A Bigger Splash, Matthias Schoenaerts + his speaking voice, Timothée Chalamet, shine shine shine, Jamie Dornan's nose, Sinatra, jazz standards, trumpet players, JFK Jr., reading abt the Kennedys, cottagecore, Winnie-the-Pooh, Beatrix Potter, Tommy Shelby Tommy Shelby Tommy Shelby, Cillian Murphy + Cillian talking/smoking, Francophilia, flâneuses, Ireland, military dramas, crime family dramas, true crime documentaries, Chadwick Boseman (I love you.), Winona Ryder/Winona Forever, Dirty Dancing + 80s movies in gen. Also 90's movies. The Before (Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight) Trilogy. Fan fiction, Nick + Jess on New Girl, Winston Bishop + Prank Sinatra + classic Winston-Cece's mess arounds + how much everyone on that show truly loves one another, Jake Johnson + Jake Johnson's onscreen kisses, my crush on Colin Jost, Misty Copeland, ballet, The Chicks, Loretta Lynn’s Honky-Tonk Feminism, being riotously feminine,Barbra Streisand, Thelma & Louise, Reality Bites, Aaron Tveit singing and dancing and existing, Phil Collins, tie-dye, Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, sk8boarding culture, roller skating rink music, the 90s, Bathsheba Everdene + Gabriel Oak, skee ball, cacti, swimming in the ocean, southern living, farms, food writing, backyard vegetable gardens, composting, tai chi, yoga, walks in the morning, walks after dinner, reading everything, rooibos tea all day, the Outlander series, Kentucky, Nashville, New Mexico, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Bath, England, Seoul, South Korea, trains, Mason jars, cardigan sweaters, undereye blush, watercolors, journaling, toy cameras/analog photography, Holga 135BC, Minolta SRT 201, Pentax ME Super, Reto UWS, learning Korean, Korean studygrams, beans, making vinaigrette, vegetarianism, pescetarianism, simple/intentional living, minimalism, quiet, hippie music/stuff & basically anything that is awesome.
&
-I’m the author of seven books.
-Every Kiss A War can be purchased here! (Mojave River Press, April 2014).
-Whiskey & Ribbons can be purchased here and wherever books are sold! (Hub City Press, March 2018).
-So We Can Glow can be purchased here and wherever books are sold! (Grand Central Publishing, March 2020).
-This Close To Okay can be purchased here and wherever books are sold! (Grand Central Publishing, February 2021).
-Half-Blown Rose can be purchased here and wherever books are sold! (Grand Central Publishing, May 2022).
-Goodbye Earl can be purchased here and wherever books are sold! (Grand Central Publishing, Summer 2023).
-As You Wish is forthcoming! (Tiny Reparations Books, Spring/Summer 2025)
-I am represented by Kerry D’Agostino @ Curtis Brown, Ltd.
-I’m co-founder/editor @ WhiskeyPaper.
-I wrote a column called THE GLIMMERING HUSH for Oxford American: The By and By.
-I wrote a Beat called LINE DRIVE @ Real Pants.
-My Facebook author page.
-My public Instagram.
-My Goodreads author page.
-[Official green earrings author photo by the gorgeous Mickie Winters.]
ONE AUTHOR BIO:
Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker, an artist, and a woman of letters. She is the author of Goodbye Earl (Grand Central Publishing, 2023), Half-Blown Rose (Grand Central Publishing, 2022), This Close To Okay (Grand Central Publishing, 2021), So We Can Glow (Grand Central Publishing, 2020), Whiskey & Ribbons (Hub City Press, 2018), and Every Kiss A War (Mojave River Press, 2014). Her next novel is As You Wish, forthcoming from Tiny Reparations Books in 2025. She was longlisted for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and the 2021 Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize. Half-Blown Rose received 2022 Coups De Cœur recognition from the American Library in Paris, and was the Amazon Editors’ Spotlight for June 2022, the inaugural pick for Amazon’s Editorial Director Sarah Gelman’s Book Club Sarah Selects, and the Barnes & Noble Book Club Pick for June 2022. This Close To Okay was a Goodreads Choice 2021 Nominee for Best Fiction, a Book of the Month Early Release Pick for December 2020 and a Book of the Month Book of the Year 2021 Nominee, the Good Housekeeping Book Club Pick for February 2021, and the Marie Claire Book Club Pick for March 2021. So We Can Glow was listed as one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020. The novel Whiskey & Ribbons was longlisted for the 2018 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and listed among Oprah Magazine’s “Top Books of Summer.” Every Kiss A War was a finalist for both the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction (2012) and the Iowa Short Fiction Award (2012). She lives in Kentucky with her high school sweetheart husband and their two children. Find more @ LeesaCrossSmith.com.
ANOTHER AUTHOR BIO:
Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker, an artist, and a woman of letters. She is the author of seven books: Every Kiss A War, Whiskey & Ribbons, So We Can Glow, This Close To Okay, Half-Blown Rose, Goodbye Earl, and the forthcoming As You Wish. She lives in Kentucky with her high school sweetheart husband and their two children.
the shortest AUTHOR BIO:
Leesa Cross-Smith is an artist and a woman of letters.
INTERVIEWS:
-Little Fiction, 2012
-Carve Magazine, 2013
-Boog City, 2013
-Midwestern Gothic, 2013
-SmokeLong Quarterly, 2013
-Michael Alexander Chaney, 2014
-Welcome to Ladyville: Creative Ladies, 2014
-Literary Orphans: Tavern Lantern, 2014
-That Lit Site, 2014
-Kathy Fish’s blog, 2014
-Anne Leigh Parrish’s blog, 2014
-Synaesthesia Magazine: Americana Issue, Spring 2014
-Other Ppl Podcast w/Brad Listi, Summer 2014
-What Are You Reading? Podcast w/Matt Debenham, Summer 2014
-Lit Out Loud: Smile Politely, Summer 2014
-Keep Louisville Literary, Summer 2014
-Mr. Bear’s Violet Hour Saloon Podcast, Summer 2014
-This Podcast Will Change Your Life w/Ben Tanzer, Summer 2014
-MashStories, Summer 2014
-Meet the Writer: Leesa Cross-Smith @ Grab the Lapels, October 2014
-Highly Textured Writer, January 2015
-Writer With Kids, January 2015
-The Female Gaze, April 2015
-Atticus Review, April 2015
-Superstition Review, April 2015
-Bartleby Snopes, Women Who Flash Their Lit, January 2016
-Entropy, January 2016
-Take Five with Leesa Cross Smith, Easy Street, February 2016
-Fear No Lit, Visual Interview, September 2016
-Fail Better: Fear No Lit, Interview, July 2017 (Finding Wonder With Fiction Writer Leesa Cross-Smith)
-The Minotaur's Spotlight, Interview, August 2017
-Leesa Cross-Smith is Taking Back Kentucky, Interview w/Latria Graham @ Electric Literature, February 2018
-Kentucky Novelist Leesa Cross-Smith To Read @ Carmichael's, Interview w/Eli Keel @ Insider Louisville, March 2018
-Louisville Writer Leesa Cross-Smith's Novel Is Filled With Music, conversation w/Ashlie Stevens @ WFPL, March 2018
-Conversation w/Gail O'Neill @ ArtsATL, March 2018
-Conversation w/Lois Reitzes on ATL NPR, March 2018
-An Interview w/Leesa Cross-Smith (conversation w/Elizabeth Ellen), March 2018
-Lit & Bruised w/Matt & John, March 2018
-By Accident and On Purpose, Interview w/Monet Thomas @ The Rumpus, March 2018
-Leesa Cross-Smith explores the uniqueness of love in her debut novel, interview w/Jeff Sykes @ LitSouth, April 2018
-Leesa Cross-Smith Recommends, Writers Recommend @ Poets & Writers, April 2018
-Five Things: Writer Leesa Cross-Smith is Quietly Radical @ WFPL (Louisville NPR), May 2018
-Conversation w/Omaria Pratt @ New Limestone Review, September 2018
-Reading Women Podcast, October 2018
-Paper Darts. Micro-Fiction Contest Judge Promo, November 2018
-Multitudes and Realness, an interview with Leesa Cross-Smith @ Superstition Review, December 2018
-Doing This Wild Thing: A Conversation With Leesa Cross-Smith @ The Rumpus, March 2020
-Author Leesa Cross-Smith talks about new book SO WE CAN GLOW @ Great Day Live, WHAS 11, March 2020
-Stay at Home Book Tour w Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy, March 2020
-Naughty Girls (Need Love Too): Elizabeth Ellen Interviews Leesa Cross-Smith, May 2020
-Kentucky author centers women’s narratives in ‘So We Can Glow: Stories’ @ Do Savannah, May 2020
-BookMarks: Q&A with novelist Leesa Cross-Smith @ ArtsATL, January 2021
-WoolferTV convo w Carmen Tanner Slaughter: THIS CLOSE TO OKAY, January 2021
-Conversation w/ Eileen MacDougall on WCTV’s Book Stew, February 2021
-THIS CLOSE TO OKAY event (& conversation w/Jacque Lancaster) @ Hub City Bookshop, February 2021
-THIS CLOSE TO OKAY event (& conversation with Gail O’Neill) @ Atlanta History Center, February 2021
-Conversation w/Ursula Villarreal-Moura abt THIS CLOSE TO OKAY @ Gulf Coast Mag, February 2021
-Tom Eblen's Kentucky authors series continues with Louisville's Leesa Cross-Smith on her latest novel, THIS CLOSE TO OKAY, February 2021 on 88.9 WEKU
-Now, Appalachia Interview w Kentucky Author Leesa Cross-Smith and Eliot Parker, February 2021
-Ali Muldrow in conversation with Leesa Cross-Smith, March 2021 on 89.9 WORT
-Putting Your Ear to the Tracks: A Conversation with Leesa Cross-Smith, July 2021 @ Catapult
-Leesa Cross-Smith and Carmichael’s on Authors Love Bookstores @ A Mighty Blaze
-Leesa Cross-Smith on Write-Minded Podcast, May 2022
-Amazon Live Q&A w Sarah Gelman, June 2022
-“Goodbye Earl” Is an Ode to the Transformative Power of Female Friendship @ Audible, June 2023