Leslieann Hobayan is a poet, priestess, healer and coach, badass mama, and host of the podcast, Spiritual Grit, a show about spirituality and activism.

She also has a weekly column on Medium called Maverick Mondays that shares personal stories of racism, and Free Verse Fridays on Instagram, her weekly poems about healing and social justice.

Nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a 2018 Best of the Net, her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Aster(ix) Journal, The Grief Diaries, The Lantern Review, The Mom Egg Review, The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit, and elsewhere. 

She has been awarded the James Merrill Fellowship for Poetry at the Vermont Studio Center, a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation writing fellowship for a residency at Millay Colony for the Arts, and artist grants for Community of Writers and the Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers Conference.

Currently teaching at Rutgers University, she’s also the founder of Heal to Power, a program that helps women of color heal from racial trauma. A VONA alum, she also teaches yoga & meditation and facilitates sacred healing circles for people of color.