About Leslie
Leslie Shimotakahara is an award-winning author of three novels and a memoir, as well as numerous short fiction and essays. She won the Canada-Japan Literary Prize (2012) and has been shortlisted for the K.M. Hunter Artist Award.
Her writing has appeared in the National Post, World Literature Today, Changing the Face of Canadian Literature, and other anthologies and periodicals. She holds a PhD in English from Brown University, and lives in Toronto with her husband. Her fourth novel, The Breakwater, will be published in April 2026 by Cormorant Books.
Leslie is represented by Sam Hiyate at The Rights Factory.