Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.

Name: Leah Browning
Title of Pieces Published in Sweet: Halfway Through the Biography of Anne Sexton
Issues: 4.1

Find Her:

Leah is a freelance writer and the editor of the Apple Valley Review. She currently lives in California.

You can find out more about her on her website.

What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?

My second chapbook of short fiction, Orchard City, was published by Hyacinth Girl Press in 2017. (The cover design is by Sarah Reck.) 

Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?

I’ve been working on a full-length collection of fiction.

Who is your favorite author?

There are so many! A few of my favorites are Ha Jin, Alice Munro, David Sedaris, Raymond Carver, Amy Bloom, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, Per Petterson, Etgar Keret, Elena Ferrante, Haruki Murakami, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Domenico Starnone.

What is your favorite poem/essay/book?

This is even harder to narrow down. A few that really stand out for me are Waiting by Ha Jin; In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin; My Ántonia by Willa Cather; Come to Me: Stories by Amy Bloom; Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (translated from the Norwegian by Anne Born); Baba Dunja’s Last Love by Alina Bronsky (translated from the German by Tim Mohr); and There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (translated from the Russian by Keith Gessen and Anna Summers). 

What inspires you to write?

Everything in life, I think.

What are you reading right now?

A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway’s memoir about being a young writer in Paris in the 1920s, and The Red Convertible, a collection of short stories by Louise Erdrich.

What is your favorite sweet? We would love for you to share a recipe or link to place that serves it. Pictures are great, too!

Chocolate mousse! More traditional versions taste amazing, but the quick and easy recipes—especially when garnished with whipped cream and chocolate shavings—are no slouch, either.  

That looks so yummy!

Thank you, Leah, for taking the time to reconnect with us. We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

Are you a contributor who wants to be a part of Sweet Connections?  Come fill out our form!