Leslie McIntosh (all pronouns respectfully used) thinks a lot about the relationship between vocal stereotypy,  perseveration, cognitive flexibility, and negative capability. Leslie’s debut volume of poetry, within-group variance, was selected by Terrance Hayes for the 2025 Changes Book Prize (Changes Press, 2026) and was a finalist for the 2023 Nightboat Poetry Prize and the 2023-2024 Poetic Justice Institute Prize. Leslie’s writing has been supported by the Breadloaf Writers Conference, Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, Hawthornden Foundation, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Jersey City Arts Council, Millay Arts, The Watering Hole, Zoeglossia, and more, Leslie's poems have appeared in Adi Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, Foglifter, Fourteen Hills, Indiana Review, Obsidian, Ploughshares, Southern Humanities Review, Witness, and elsewhere. Previously a chapbook editor at Newfound: An Inquiry of Place, Leslie lives on the stolen land of the Munsee Lenape, presently known as Jersey City, NJ, USA.