Lorena Hernández Leonard

Lorena Hernández Leonard is a Colombian-American writer, storyteller, and filmmaker. She is a Pauline Scheer Fellow and graduate of the Memoir Incubator program at GrubStreet and now serves on the program’s board. Her writing has been published in Corporeal KHÔRA, WBUR’s Cognoscenti, Tasteful Rude, and received an Honorary Mention in Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition. Her memoir-in-progress, Salsipuedes: Leave if you Can, documents her experiences growing up during the Colombian drug war and immigrating to the US. Lorena has appeared on WORLD Channel’s television program Stories from the Stage and performed on the International Institute of New England’s Suitcase Stories. She is co-producer of the award-winning animated short film Demi’s Panic which has screened at film festivals around the world and was long-listed for the 94th Oscars. Lorena holds a B.A. from UMass Amherst and an M.A. from Emerson College.