Leslie Jamison

Who is Leslie Jamison?

Leslie Jamison is an American novelist and essayist. Her work has been published in Best New American Voices 2008, A Public Space, and Black Warrior Review. Originally from Los Angeles, she attended Harvard University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and she is currently finishing a Ph.D. in English literature at Yale. Her father is the economist and global health researcher Dean Jamison.

Jamison's first novel, The Gin Closet, was published by Free Press in 2010. It received positive reviews by the San Francisco Chronicle, Vogue, and Publishers Weekly.

Jamison's second book, The Empathy Exams, an essay collection published by Graywolf Press, debuted in April 2014 at no. 11 on the New York Times bestseller list. The book received wide acclaim from critics, with the New York Times writer Olivia Lang saying, "It’s hard to imagine a stronger, more thoughtful voice emerging this year."