.(L.M.) Leslie M. Browning is a TEDx speaker, publisher, and the award-winning author of twelve titles. She grew up in the small fishing village of Stonington, Connecticut. In her writing, Browning explores the confluence of the natural landscape and the interior landscape. She holds degrees from the University of London and Harvard University. Over the last ten years of her career, she has served on the Board of the Independent Book Publisher’s Association and is a Fellow with the International League of Conservation Writers. In 2011, she founded Homebound Publications and its divisions, which has gone on to become a leading independent publisher in the country. She currently serves on the State of Connecticut’s Suicide Advisory Board and CT-NAMI’s Lived Experience Committee. A vagabond-turned-homesteader, Les is currently posted up at Homebound Publications’ woodland basecamp in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts where she is solo homesteading 15-acres of raw land, in her own modern Walden.

(Still) Radically Authentic

[Trigger Warning: Suicide & Mental Health]  Howdy, folks.  So, for the last year, I’ve been pretty quiet—not just on social media but within my friend/professional circles; the silence wasn’t indicative of lack of care. I just had one of those years—a string of...

Going Home | Wild Silence Travel Column

by L.M. Browning, appeared in The Wayfarer Magazine autumn 2019 edition as part of the Wild Silence Travel Column | The Full Issue>> “What is the meaning of life? That was all—a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation...

The Dirge | A Poem

by L.M. Browning, from the forthcoming collection, Drive Through the Night     Dancing with the dust devils across the land of dazzling desolation I seize freedom by unearthing the beauty in the vanishing nature of all that is vital.   Knowing that I...

Constellation of Wounds | A Poem

by L.M. Browning, an except from Drive Through the Night   The patterns of the trauma align  across the memories of our mind —inescapable—a blackhole of being. 8,947 miles later, I know now why  you refuse the say the names of those            ...

Mustang | A Poem

by L.M. Browning, except from Drive Through the Night   Ride this life hard       —barebacked, bone-shaken. Wrap your legs tight       —thighs around her rib cage, pounding. Take hold in the rush        —fingers tangled in her mane, entwined.   Don’t look back,...

Drive Through the Night | A Poem

Drive Through the Night | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from Drive Through the Night     If we kept moving     —blind in the blur        of mileage mounting— we might outrun the sun and not see the sight awaiting in the bare daylight that we were the source of...

The Technicolor Burning Bush | A Poem

The Technicolor Burning Bush | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from Drive Through the Night   In the misty morning beyond murky mirages I hear the voice of god in the hum of the neon sign at the rest stop where the caravan of displaced desperadoes and expats post-up for...

Future Primitive | Radical Authenticity

    I recently sat down with Joanna Harcourt Smith of Future Primitive to discuss my short memoir To Lose the Madness as the TEDx Talk and practice of Radical Authenticity that came from my experiences.  **** Future Primitive: In this week’s episode Leslie M....

Lobo | A Poem

Lobo | A Poem by L.M. Browning, an except from Drive Through the Night    Drive through the night lost in the miles the lone wayfarer ever in motion.   Be gentle long night I don’t belong here. Thrown to the wolves I shifted nocturnal.   Arced up,...

The Recurring Dream | A Poem

The Recurring Dream | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from a working collection   In a land beyond the pervading dark, in a state beyond the fever-pitch, in a dialog beyond the finding of blame, I'm hoping to find you and build a home where we can live the life we...

Unspoken | A Poem

Unspoken | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from a private collection   There are things that will go unsaid and unwritten—that will live in us alone until time shifts the landscape of memory and all that we remember is changed.   Out beyond the murkiness left by...

The Road from Santa Fe to Cimarron | A Poem

The Road from Santa Fe to Cimarron | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from a working collection   Red dust, sanguine from Sangre bleeding into the snowy roads that lead to the hidden mountain where the lone buffalo waits.Recent Poetry Posts

TEDx Yale: Radical Authenticity & Writing on Life

 “The theme of the Yale University TEDx Conference in 2018 is UNCHARTED. My ‘uncharted territory’ is the limits of our sanity in the face of successive trauma and our ability to transcend that senseless suffering into something meaningful via a practice I called ‘Radical Authenticity.’  What is Radical Authenticity? For me, it was a reckoning—it was the process of confronting everything in my life I’d been running from and eventually coming to own that journey . . . ”  – L.M. Browning

 

forthcoming april 2022

 

“…A quiet-yet-fierce rebirth of the wounded spirit.”

James Crews, Poet and Editor of The Path of Kindness

“…breathtakingly vulnerability.”

–Will Falk, author of How Dams Fall

Pre-order in Paperback & eBook
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“…Exquisitely delicate and lyrical. Her magnum opus.”

–Caitlin Garvey, author of The Mourning Report

A POETIC MEMOIR ON TAMING, RECLAIMING & BECOMING WILD

FEATURING NEARLY 100 ORIGINAL BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS FROM THE ROAD.

Following the release of her micro-memoir, To Lose the Madness, and the TEDx Talk at Yale University based on her life, Browning returns from a six-year poetic silence with, Drive through the NightRaw, gritty, lonesome, and stunningly authentic—we pick up Browning’s trail at mid-life as the poet reflects on her journey through her major relationships, both with lovers and self. The map of these poems traces the poet’s journey of overcoming and re-becoming while simultaneously set against the iconic backdrop of the American Southwest. In Drive Through the Night, we follow the trail of an orphan-turned-vagabond who left behind the white picket fence for the open range and open road.

follow

wild silence

“Sit with the silence. there is something there waiting for you.”

AWARD-WINNING micro-memoir

 

“A laconic, beautiful, and deeply insightful account about coping with loss.”

Kirkus Reviews

Available in Paperback, Audiobook & eBook
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“In this spellbinding book, poet and novelist Browning spares no detail in telling the story of her descent into profound grief as one loss piled upon another. Though small, this effective and plainspoken memoir is densely packed with tales of harrowing experiences that require emotional, intellectual, and spiritual investments on the part of the reader. Browning’s journey of recovery will be of help to anyone looking for courage in difficult times.”

–Publishers Weekly

“Impressively candid and articulate, extraordinarily honest and insightful, exceptionally well written, organized and presented, To Lose the Madness is an inherently compelling read from cover to cover. Thoughtful and thought-provoking from first page to last, To Lose the Madness is unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists, as well as community and academic library collections.”

–Midwest Book Review, *Reviewer’s Choice

“Browning’s essay explores the confluence of natural and interior landscapes in a manner both beautiful and searing.”

Foreword Reviews, *5 Stars

To Lose the Madness | Audio Book Sample

by L.M. Browning | To Lose Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical Authenticity

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own your journey