Leslie Smith Townsend is a poet, essayist, and memoirist whose work has been published in LEO, Journeys, The Louisville Review, Courier-Journal, Arable, Literary Mama, Christian Science Monitor, Friends Journal, Gyroscope Review, Metafore, and in the anthologies, Voices of Alcoholism, Show Me All Your Scars, and The Boom Project: Voices of a Generation. She is a graduate of Spalding University's MFA in writing program. Townsend has a Ph.D. in the psychology of religion and works as a licensed marriage and family therapist.