Leslie Margolis (she/her) has had a lifelong interest in teaching, learning, writing, resistance, and social change.

She majored in Government and Sociology and minored in Women’s Studies at Clark University. She then moved to Santiago, Chile, to study Spanish. She holds a master’s degree in Social Anthropology from The London School of Economics; her dissertation was on indigenous responses to the Sandinistas during the Nicaraguan Revolution. Afterwards, she worked at UNICEF and became a ghost writer, penning Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys novels.

Leslie has provided homework help to unhoused children in New York City, tutored pregnant teenagers studying for the GED in Worcester, Massachusetts, worked with young immigrants learning English in Los Angeles, and written about teenage Somali refugees fighting racism in Lewiston, Maine.

She has taught novel-writing, English and history to middle school and high school students.

Leslie is also the author of many books for young readers, including The Maggie Brooklyn Mystery Series (published by Bloomsbury) and several standalone novels including Ghosted, We Are Party People, and If I Were You (published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux). One of her books was turned into the Disney Channel movie Zapped, starring Zendaya.

A frequent visiting author and guest lecturer at schools and libraries, Leslie serves on the board of Writers & Artists Across the Country, a non-profit that brings books and authors to underserved K-12 schools.

Leslie loves traveling, hiking, reading, hosting book club, drinking coffee, cycling, and swimming, although not necessarily in that order. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and Vida, a scrappy mutt from Costa Rica. She is thrilled to be continuing her intellectual journey at Sequoyah.