A talented writer and educator of many years, Leland William Howard most recently taught at New Mexico Highlands University as an adjunct instructor for introduction to fiction in 2013 and 2015 and in English composition in 2012, where he had originally got his start as a graduate teaching assistant from 2005 to 2008. He has also been an adjunct instructor in English composition at Luna Community College from 2011 to 2014. Earlier, he served as a publicist for Millbrook Playhouse in Mill Hall, Pennsylvania in 1990. Mr. Howard earned a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and creative writing from Hunter College in 2004 and a Master of Arts in English literature from New Mexico Highlands University in 2008, as well as a certificate in French from the Sorbonne in Paris, France in 1987.

Amongst his written works, Mr. Howard’s published his first novel “Pirouettes Get No Applause in Goldengrove” in 2002, for which he also wrote a screenplay. His second novel, “The Grass Hut” was published in 2009 and his third book, a fictional memoir, “Portrait of Betsy” was published in 2011. Mr. Howard has also written various short stories including “Elizabeth” from 2017 and a series of lyrical poems between 1980 and 1983 comprised in a collection entitled “Steps Below.” Becoming involved in the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement in New Orleans, he wrote an essay “The Gay, The Church, and the Environment.” Additionally, in collaboration with photographer Jodie Olsen, Mr. Howard composed a series of poems to compliment her photographs in their collection entitled Pilgrimage in 2002.

Mr. Howard also enjoyed an acting career and the privilege of portraying such Shakespearian heroines as Portia, Olivia, and Viola under the guidance and inspiration of Herbert Berghof in an Experimental Shakespeare Workshop at the HB Studio in 1988. He attributes his varying successes to the loving and providential care of God, who has never failed to help him, along with the guidance and support of many mentors. Civically involved as well, Mr. Howard has been active with the Crescent City Coalition, the Louisiana Gay Political Action Caucus, New Orleans Gay Men’s Chorus, First National Gay Choral Festival, St. Cecelia Chorus and Light Opera of Manhattan.

Mr. Howard always felt a sense of spiritual expansion and emotional liberation in portraying a character other than his own. Whether it was the old man Tyndareus in a production of Euripides’ “Orestes” or Olivia in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” he feels that every human has the potential for behaving in a variety of ways and the glory of acting enables the actor or actress to explore a new side of themselves. The joy he has derived from writing novels and short stories has also come from letting the characters who come onto the stage of his imagination do and say things he wouldn’t say or do himself. Looking to the future, Mr. Howard intends to enroll in a film studies master’s program, as well as publish more short stories and novels.