Anna Justine Leader (born 1996) is a Luxembourgish poet and novelist who writes in English. She has won several awards including Luxembourg's national literary contest for young authors (''Concours littéraire national, jeunes auteurs de 15-25 ans''), first for her novel ''A Several World'' in 2014, then for her poetry collection ''A Lifetime Lies'' in 2015, and finally for her play ''Outlast'' in 2018.

Biography

Born in

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the county seat of Whatcom County, Washington, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It lies south of the Canada–United States border, U.S.–Canada border, between Vancouver, British Columbia, ...

, on 19 October 1996, Anna Justine Leader is the daughter of American schoolteacher René Leader and the British writer and schoolteacher James Leader. After spending her first four years in the United States, she moved with her family to Luxembourg in 2000. She matriculated from the

International School of Luxembourg The International School of Luxembourg (ISL) is a privately owned non-profit international school located in Hollerich, Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. History The school was founded in 1963 under the name DuPont de Nemours Private Sc ...

in 2014, after which she embarked on a comparative literature course at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. Leader graduated in 2018. Leader has won the Luxembourgish Concours littéraire national three times, in 2014, 2015, and 2018. Aged 16, she completed her first novel; ''Tentative'' tells the story of a teenage triad in Paris. In 2014, her first historical novel won the Luxembourg literary contest in the under-25 category. ''A Several World'' is based on a period when

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in t ...

Klimt Gustav Klimt (14 July 1862 – 6 February 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and a founding member of the Vienna Secession movement. His work helped define the Art Nouveau style in Europe. Klimt is known for his paintings, murals, sketc ...

and the young

Anna Freud Anna Freud CBE ( ; ; 3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was a British psychoanalyst of Austrian Jewish descent. She was born in Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her father a ...

were all living close to each other in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

at the time of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Leader completed the manuscript of 140,000 words in just three months while taking her international baccalaureate examinations. In 2015, Leader won first place again for a collection of poems titled "A Lifetime Lies," and in 2018 the prize was awarded to her play ''Outlast'', a queer environmental take on Luxembourg's founding myth. When interviewed by Amanda Blanco at Princeton in March 2016, Leader said that she has been influenced by her literary father, publishing her first poem when she was five. She hopes to have a career in education, following in the footsteps of her parents and grandparents. Leader graduated from Princeton University in June 2018 and now works in education.

Awards

In addition to her three national Luxembourg awards, Leader won first prize at the 'Concours Jeune Printemps' in 2012 with her poem "Elegy for Two" and second prize in 2014 with "The Museum". In 2013 and 2015, she was awarded joint first prize in the Guardian Stephen Spender Prize for literary translation (u-18), first with "The Approaching Winter" from Jules Laforgue's "L'hiver qui vient," and then with "Weeds", from German poet Jan Wagner's "Giersch". In 2016, Leader won first prize in the Princeton University Creative Reactions Contest with an untitled poem inspired by the Arcanto String Quartet's concert of 12 November 2015. She also won the 2017 Creative Reactions Contest with a poem titled "love songs between balconies" inspired by the mezzo-soprano Jamie Berton on 6 October 2016.

References

External links

Anna Leader's report on her OECD internship
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leader, Anna 1996 births Living people People from Bellingham, Washington Luxembourgian women writers Luxembourgian poets Luxembourgian women poets Luxembourgian novelists Luxembourgian women novelists Princeton University alumni 21st-century Luxembourgian writers 21st-century Luxembourgian women writers