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 faculty member 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. Her fiction and verse have 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. She has written two poetry collections: Why Would You Leave Me? forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in October 2025 and Lingering: A Poet’s Journey through Literary Landscapes from North Meridan Press due out Summer 2026. 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.