Larson, Leslie 1956-

PERSONAL:

Born 1956, in San Diego, CA. Education: University of California, San Diego, B.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Berkeley, CA. Agent—Stuart Bernstein, 63 Carmine St., Unit 3D, New York, NY 10014. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer. Freelance writer of television and print advertising, feature stories, and newsletters. Senior writer, University of California Press. Teacher of writing workshops.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Power of Purpose Award, 2004; Astraea Foundation Award, 2006; BookSense Notable Book citation, 2006, for Slipstream.

WRITINGS:

Slipstream, Crown/Shaye Areheart (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Faultline, East Bay Express, and Women's Review of Books.

SIDELIGHTS:

Leslie Larson explores the city of Los Angeles and its inhabitants in her debut novel, Slipstream. Although Los Angeles is known as the center of the entertainment world and all its glamour, Larson's book depicts another aspect of the area. Her five main characters have ordinary, lonely lives, working at airports, selling cosmetics, and going to school. Yet their lives are full of drama, as well—with dissolving relationships, emotional instability, and financial hardships. A plot for revenge culminates at the airport, when all five of the characters' lives come together. The airport "often feels like a cold place where everything is transient," commented a Kirkus Reviews writer, who praised the novel as "a gripping debut." The author's settings are "believably grimy," and the people in her story have "interesting corners," according to Jenne Bergstrom in the Library Journal. Allison Block, a contributor to Booklist, found the book's ending to be "melodramatic," but praised it as an "otherwise deft" effort, one which draws an eerie parallel between the characters' fates and those of the dinosaurs that were trapped and died a slow death in the La Brea Tar Pits near Los Angeles.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 15, 2006, Allison Block, review of Slipstream, p. 27.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2006, review of Slipstream, p. 200.

Library Journal, May 15, 2006, Jenne Bergstrom, review of Slipstream, p. 89.

ONLINE

Crashing America,http://www.crashingamerica.com/ (November 14, 2006), interview with Leslie Larson.

John Templeton Foundation Web site,http://www.templeton.org/ (November 14, 2006), biographical information on Leslie Larson.

Leslie Larson Home Page,http://www.leslielarson.com (January 17, 2007).

Random House Web site,http://www.randomhouse.com/ (November 14, 2006), biographical information on Leslie Larson.