Leslie Harper Worthington earned her PhD in Southern Literature from Auburn University and recently retired after a 40-year career in higher education as both an English professor and academic administrator. She is a recipient of the Brittain Fellowship from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Quarry Farm Fellowship from the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College, and the Key West Literary Seminar Workshop Fellowship.

Dr. Worthington is the author of Cormac McCarthy and the Ghost of Huck Finn (McFarland, 2012), co-editor of Seeking Home: Marginalization and Representation in Appalachian Letters and Song (University of Tennessee Press, 2016), which was nominated for a C. Hugh Holman Award, and has penned numerous scholarly articles.

She has published two poetry collections: Why Would You Leave Me? (Finishing Line Press, 2026) and Lingering: A Poet’s Journey through Literary Landscapes (North Meridian Press, 2026), nominated for the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection. Her fiction and verse have also appeared in publications as diverse as CHEST: The Journal of American College Chest Physicians, Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors, The South Carolina Bard Poetry Anthology, Stonepile Writers’ Anthology, and Sugar Mule Literary Magazine.

Currently, she is editing Red Clay & River Fog: Artists and Writers of North Alabama, an anthology of poetry, prose, paintings, drawings, and photographs by artists and writers with North Alabama connections. The book is forthcoming from North Meridian Press in October 2026. In January 2027, Dr. Worthington will be sworn in as Vice President for the Alabama State Poetry Society.

Now residing on Lookout Mountain in northern Alabama, she enjoys spending time with her children and grandchildren, traveling, and writing. A lifelong writer, she has returned to creative pursuits in retirement, focusing on poetry as a means to explore the depths of the human experience and create honest, meaningful connections. Dr. Worthington writes to remember, to understand, and to leave something that may endure.