Hello! I’m Leslie.

I’m a freelance journalist living in Toronto. My primary beats are culture, social justice and religion, and I’m passionate about solutions journalism and restorative narrative. My writing explores themes of identity, social and political action and everyday life. I’ve appeared in Broadview, The Local, This, West End Phoenix, Philanthropist Journal, Spacing, The Globe and Mail and others. In 2024, I won a National Magazine Award in Feature Writing for my story Books Behind Bars. In 2026, recently won the A.C. Forrest Memorial Award (Circulation 10,000+) for my story, Sentenced to Labour.

I graduated with distinction from Toronto Metropolitan University (known formerly as Ryerson University) in 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Communication and a minor in sociology. I completed a Master of Journalism there in 2024. Outside of journalism, you can find me writing memoir or pursuing arts and crafts.

I sporadically publish a newsletter called A Long Story Short.

Photo: Aloysius Wong