Leah Mueller
Published Writer
About Leah Mueller
Background Story
I am a published writer and spoken word performer. During the past six years, I have authored two chapbooks and six books. They have all been published by various small publishing houses, such as Weasel Press, Czykmate Press, and Alien Buddha. My work has also been featured in Blunderbuss, Outlook Springs, Your Impossible Voice, Citron Review, The Spectacle, Miracle Monocle, Summerset Review, and many other publications and anthologies.
My essay "Firebrand, The Radical Life and Times of Annie Besant" appears in the book, "Fierce, Essays By and About Dauntless Women" (Nauset Press), which placed first in the non-fiction division of the 2019 Publisher's Weekly Booklife contest.
I love reading my work in public and over Zoom. I was a featured poet at the 2015 New York Poetry Festival. Some of my other featured gigs include Creative Colloquy in Tacoma, WA, Everett Poetry Night in Everett, WA, Death Rattle Literary Festival in Nampa, ID, and the Flash Fiction Forum in San Jose, CA.
"One day time will die, and love will bury it."
Richard Brautigan
Misguided Behavior, Tales of Poor Life Choices
(Czykmate Press)
First Published September 11, 2019
"Misguided Behavior" has been described by one reader as a "collection of nomadic stories of sex, love, drugs, restlessness, and tragedy." This compilation will alternately have you laughing out loud, shedding a few tears, and shaking your head in disbelief.
The book includes such tales as "Running From the Law", "The Clown Chronicles", "The Astrologer's Diagnosis", "Leaving Bisbee", and many more.
Here's what writer/reviewer Charles Rammelkamp said about this book: ".......a life of invention, ad-libbing, extemporizing, as she gets blindsided left and right, and yet she maintains a stoic attitude. “Despite my own hardships,” she writes in “The Other Side of the Cage,” a story about being stoned and lost in a zoo in New Orleans with her boyfriend, “I remained entrenched in the belief that my luck would change.”
Contact me for books and readings
More 2019 Titles
A selection of my recent books
Death and Heartbreak
(Weasel Press)
A melancholy but humorous poetry collection about two recurrent themes in my life. Includes such poems as "Meteorite From Saturn", "Your Girlfriend the Sex Therapist" and "The Afternoon of Your Cremation."
Here's what one reader had to say: "Two poems really sent it home, the one about being kind to your shadow, a genius piece about self-esteem; and the one about Harold Lloyd - I had just seen Safety Last two nights ago, and the way Mueller deconstructs the iconic clock-hanging scene into a parable about time crushing one's soul is a remarkable piece of invention."
This is a perfect compilation for a chilly, introspective evening.
Cocktails at Denny's
(Alien Buddha Press)
A selection of poetry and prose, including such titles as "Who's Your Daddy America", "Open Letter to an Asshole", "The Desert Visitors", and "Five Ways to Disappear."
From one of the poems ("Early Signs"):
"I bought him
a silkscreened tee shirt
that read,
'it's not apathy, it's zen.'
Two weeks later,
he lost the shirt,
said he didn't care."
