Leigh Ann Henion is a freelance writer and photographer based in Boone, North Carolina. Her essays, articles, and photographs have appeared in publications such as Smithsonian, Oxford American, Preservation, The Washington Post Magazine, Orion, and The Christian Science Monitor.

She has received a variety of national awards for her work, including a 2008 Lowell Thomas Award for her Washington Post Magazine article "The Longest Yard." Judges said of the piece:  "Excellent reporting and well-crafted narrative bring this slice of Americana to life. The story is about more than the nation's largest yard sale—it's about what it means to be American." Her article, “Wings and a Prayer,” about the monarch butterfly migration to Mexico, was recently named a Notable Selection by The Best American Travel Writing 2009 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

It's unsettling to have a severed, still-warm bull's ear hurtling toward you—something I discovered firsthand—but being the target of a projectile body part during a Spanish bullfight is considered an honor. I learned this cultural tidbit from reading Ernest Hemingway. My journey with the writer began many years ago with a poster, a $3 thrift store find that, at first glance, didn't seem to have anything to do with Hemingway…read more / view gallery