Creative

As a poet, lyricist, and librettist whose work is inspired by history, language, and the mythopoeic, Leonard is a frequent collaborator with composers and other musicians, and is the librettist of numerous operas including Marie Curie Learns to Swim (music by composer Jessica Rudman); The Harbingers (music by Rossa Crean); Tobermory (music by Edd Caine), and Sense of Self (music by Lisa Neher). Her texts have been set by composers including Jessica Rudman, Allyssa Jones, Elaine Fine, George Harvey, Stephen Vincent Casellas, and Michael Oberhauser, and performed by the Choral Arts Initiative and Hartford Opera Theater, among others. Her first chapbook, Making Mythology, was published in 2020 by Louisiana Literature Press, and her novella in verse, Protectress, was published in 2022 by Unsolicited Press. Individual poems appear in numerous publications including vox poetica, lunch, These Fragile Lilacs, and Upstart: Out of Sequence: The Sonnets Remixed, among other venues.

Read Leonard’s artist statement and more about her libretti, lyrics, plays, and poetry.