home photographs creative services grants + awards contact
Essays +
  Attachment and Loss at 10,000 Feet  
Articles
By Leigh Ann Henion  
  World Hum, June 5, 2008  
  I've been at the Corpus Christi festival in Cuenca, Ecuador, for over an hour before I notice Maria, the small-for-her-age 8-year-old I befriended a few weeks ago after she'd asked if my canvas tennis shoes needed shining. They hadn't, but Maria seemed to find my spotty Spanish interesting. In the weeks since we met, she's taught me a plethora of gestures considered rude in her culture, and I've taught her to play patty-cake…read more  
     
  Teaching is a Trip  
  By Leigh Ann Henion  
  The Christian Science Monitor, May 19, 2008  
  I'm leaving my house with a rolling suitcase and a passport. I look as though I'm off on a Roman holiday, but the suitcase actually holds a surplus of books and the passport is for identification in a human resources office. I've just signed up to teach a writing class for freshman at the local university, and I have no idea what I'm getting myself into…read more  
     
Wings And a Prayer  
By Leigh Ann Henion  
  The Washington Post Magazine, March 30, 2008  
  The man sitting next to me on this flight is having a spiritual experience. Actually, he’s remembering a spiritual experience, but the wild, alert expression on his face is evocative of someone giving religious testimony. His memory has been sparked by my confession that I am headed to the Mexican state of Michoacan to see millions of monarch butterflies congregate in its mountains…read more / view gallery  
     
Manuel Noriega Slept Here  
By Leigh Ann Henion  
  World Hum, August 27, 2007  
 
"Go home gringos!" Honey shouts as we make our way out of Boquete, Panama, headed east against the traffic toward Panama City. I have been promised a trip to one of Panama's Pacific-side beaches and a tour of the abandoned home of Manuel Noriega, famed former CIA informant and self-appointed Panamanian military leader…read more
 
     
JAM Sessions Fill Music Students With Southern Pride  
By Leigh Ann Henion  
  The Christian Science Monitor, June 21, 2007  
 
It was the flash cards that prompted Helen White to speak up. Seven years ago, the school counselor at Sparta Elementary School was observing a third-grade music class when the teacher held up pictures of stringed instruments…read more
 
     
Watch Out, Robin Hood! Here Comes Competition  
By Leigh Ann Henion  
  The Christian Science Monitor, May 18, 2007  
 
I consider myself a good sport. But my sporting ability – well, that's another matter. Two other prospective archers, Melissa and Irene, are standing in front of me at the archery range in England. They look as though they know what they're doing, and, even though their arrows are not quite making it to the target, I'm impressed… read more
 
     
The Longest Yard  
By Leigh Ann Henion  
The Washington Post Magazine, April 29, 2007  
 
My fiancé, Matt, and I are standing on a roadside in Kentucky deciding whether we want an old cast iron sink full of mud. For some, this might be an easy choice. But we are playing the is-it-a-piece-of-junk-or-an-antique-worth-saving game… read more / view gallery
 
     
  Postcards of What Was Missing  
  By Leigh Ann Henion  
  Fresh Yarn, March 2007  
 

Postcard 1:  I have just reached my hotel in Quito, Ecuador. It is a city screaming with bus brakes and rabid dogs. I am already weary, but I pause to talk to a woman who has set up shop on the stoop outside of the lobby. Her name is Rosa. She is 79 years old, and she has spread her white linens over gray cement where they appear as fully bloomed lilies growing in stark contrast to such a gritty city…read more

 
     
A Souvenir That Became the Symbol of So Much More  
By Leigh Ann Henion  
The Christian Science Monitor, February 26, 2007  
 
I noticed the puma on my first day in town. The cartoonish, carved wooden mask hung just inside the open door of a store next to the hotel where I was staying during my time in Cuenca, Ecuador…read more
 
   
Where the Heart Is  
By Leigh Ann Henion  
Skirt! Magazine, February 2007  
 
Unlike our parents, as my generation navigates the professional world we are faced with a job market that expects us to move on after a few years so they can hire younger, inexperienced workers whom they can pay less. The corporate ladder may have been in place a generation ago, but we're the ones for whom the rungs have been spread out across the country and all over the world... read more
 
     
  A Reluctant Skier Takes the Slow Path  
  By Leigh Ann Henion  
  The Christian Science Monitor, January 3, 2007  
 
To reluctant skiers, the bunny slopes of Colorado look more like bears. I am one of them...read more
 
     
A Field of Bathtubs - and Dreams  
By Leigh Ann Henion  
  The Christian Science Monitor, December 1, 2006  
 
There must be hundreds of claw-foot tubs in this field. They're lined up in long, straight rows that, from a distance, might look like cotton waiting to be harvested. The owner of this offbeat crop, Mr. Faircloth, is known in my small town as the "tub man." ...read more
 
     
The Best View Isn't Always From the Top  
By Leigh Ann Henion  
 

The Christian Science Monitor, September 29, 2006

 
 
My palms began to sweat as I studied the steep incline of the path. The smooth sandstone spine of Australia's Ayers Rock was fitted with metal posts, and thick chains were provided along the narrowest passages. Still, I was nervous about climbing...read more
 
     
  A Relaxing Lesson From Wild Turkeys  
  By Leigh Ann Henion  
 

The Christian Science Monitor, September 14, 2006

 
 
My computer has been struck by lightning. I cannot check my e-mail. I have no way to connect with the outside world - or so I think...read more
 
     
  Beauty Is in the Eye  
By Leigh Ann Henion  

Orion Magazine, July/August 2006

 
 
“Can you believe this is here?” Gary asks, heavy sadness in his eyes. By trade, he is a biologist, but I know he is not referring to an out-of-place species. He is referring to the people. They are all around us, mining the garbage of Quito, Ecuador...read more
 
     
Tiny Guests in Polka-dot Dresses  
  By Leigh Ann Henion  
The Christian Science Monitor, April 28, 2006  
 
Ladybugs are, well, ladylike houseguests. I should know; I hosted dozens this winter. Living in an old farmouse, I'm used to unexpected guests...read more
 
     
  Flight of Faith  
  By Leigh Ann Henion  
  Skirt! Magazine, March 2006  
 
When my plane touches down in Guadalajara, Mexico, I disembark with a plastic bound conversational Spanish guide and a small rolling suitcase. The agency arranging the home stay for my study abroad hadn't been able to give me any details about the woman I would be living with for the next few months. So, I search the crowd looking for my mysterious hostess...read more
 
     
  Bilingual By Breakfast  
  By Leigh Ann Henion  
  Smithsonian, February 2006  
 
The concrete-and-tile house in which I'm living in Boquete, Panama, is often filled with echoes of the indecipherable chatter from the restaurant next door. It is patronized by men in evenly pleated Panamanian shirts and women in flower print, polyester dresses...read more
 
     
  It's a Different World from the Seat of a Bike  
  By Leigh Ann Henion  
  The Christian Science Monitor, October 21, 2005  
 
I cringed when I saw the bicycles. They looked harmless, stacked like dominoes against the wooden fence. But dominoes were designed to fall, and so, in my experience, were bicycles...read more
 
     
  The Voice in the Violin  
  By Leigh Ann Henion  
  The Mountain Times, 2003  
 
Alfred Michels' shop smells of sweet pipe tobacco and wood varnish. Often, lazy smoke curves around the room, caressing the slender bodies of violins left hanging by the curve of their scrolls, and dancing around the substantial bellies of stand-up basses waiting patiently for their turn to dance...read more
 
     
  Going Once, Going Twice: Wildcat Flea Market and the Art of the Deal  
  By Leigh Ann Henion  
  The Mountain Times, October 17, 2002  
 

Three-not-four, four-not-five, five-here, five-here, six-dollar-pan-six-dollar, do I have a seven?" Elbert Graybeal has been to auctioneer school and every Saturday night at Wildcat Flea Market he aims to prove it. Yep, he's certified and he means business...read more

 
     
  Buckin' Out  
  By Leigh Ann Henion  
  The Mountain Times, September 19, 2002  
 
Every Thursday night, Boone Stockyard is filled with the blood, guts and glory of bona-fide bull riding. But before cowboys strap on their spurs and dirt is kicked into a shimmering dust, there is prayer...read more
 
   
 
All content copyright © 2002-2008 Leigh Ann Henion.