Leslie Liautaud
At Blue Handle, we focus on brining a variety of quality and diversity to our lineup, constantly looking for extremely talented individuals willing to test their writing and creativity. Leslie Liautaud epitomizes this with her award-winning immersive play Southern Gothic, which won Joseph Jefferson Awards for best director, scenic design, and artistic specialization. Premiering in 2008 at the Windy City Playhouse in Chicago, Southern Gothic was also nominated in the midsize play, new work, and ensemble categories.
Leslie’s plays Midnight Waltzes (2006), He Is Us (2008), The Wreck (2009), The Mansion (2012) and A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Millennial Edition (2012) have been produced throughout the United States.
Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Leslie has worked in the performing arts for more than 30 years. She currently divides her time between Nashville, Tennessee, and Key Largo, Florida, with her husband, Jimmy John Liautaud, their three children, and menagerie of animals.
Leslie has multiple projects with Blue Handle that we are excited to bring to the light, including her novel Black Bear Lake, which released September 13, 2022.
Books By Leslie Liautaud
Adam Craig still has nightmares about the last summer he spent on the shores of northern Wisconsin's black bear lake.
The Chicago stock trader thinks he has it under control, until fallout from an explosive August in 1983 threatens his marriage. So, Adam returns to remember that month-long family reunion where he was busy wrestling with developing adolescence, a parent's failing health, and watching his cousin Dannie's desperate cries for help. At 14, Adam's fear and anger were constantly threatening to pull him under while the current running through his family flowed, inevitably, toward tragedy.
It was too much to bear back then. But will reliving those painful memories hurt or help Adam as his adult life teeters on the edge of collapse?