I write in several genres, playing with voice, dialogue, humour, and character. My work includes: fiction and non-fiction books, children’s literature, magazine features, short stories, creative nonfiction, and scripts for film, theatre, TV and animation. I have recently completed a full-length comedy play entitled, Play the Hand You’re Dealt, and I’m working on an ensemble novel, narrated by eight characters, set in the Laurentians in 1973 entitled, Everyone Wants to Talk.
My young adult novel Heartache and Other Natural Shocks won the Jonathan and Heather Berkowitz Prize at the 2016 Western Canada Jewish Book Awards. Fun fact: my children’s book Pigmalion can be seen in the movie Elf.
Kirkus Review
Steeped in the history of the Quebecois separatist movement and 1970s fashion and pop culture… a refreshing break from contemporary teen fiction.
Globe and Mail (Nov. 27, 2015)
Wishing Judy Blume had written a novel set in 1970 during the peak of the FLQ crisis? This is it. In her first teen book, Glenda Leznoff tells the stories of two teen girls leading very different lives, but linked by their neighbourhood geography and insatiable attraction to a bad-boy classmate named Ian (yes, he drives a motorcycle). Julia is quiet, artsy, contemplative and homesick as her family has just moved from Montreal to escape the political unrest. Carla is bold, sexually open, dramatic and wildly jealous of the attention Ian pays to Julia. The Blume comparison is apt because of the deliciously juicy realism; the simultaneous upheaval of both the country and two teen girls’ hormones is addictive and surprising. Leznoff gets teen girls – their conversations, their insecurities and their deep yearning for self-worth.
My children’s book, Pigmalion, was featured in the movie Elf (below).
Glenda Leznoff 