Leslieann Hobayan is a poet, life coach, and host of the podcast, Spiritual Grit, a show at the intersection of spirituality and activism.

She also shares stories on Adventures in Midlife, including a mini-podcast called Midlife Musings on topics that range from politics to parenting, healing trauma to living in the diaspora.

Nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a 2018 Best of the Net, her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Aster(ix) Journal, The Grief Diaries, The Lantern Review, The Mom Egg Review, The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit, and elsewhere. 

She has been awarded the 2025 NJ State Council for the Arts fellowship, the James Merrill Fellowship for Poetry at the Vermont Studio Center, a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation writing fellowship for a residency at Millay Colony for the Arts, and artist grants for Community of Writers and the Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers Conference.

Currently teaching at Rutgers University, she’s also the founder of Heal to Power, a program that helps women of color heal from racial trauma. A VONA alum, she also teaches yoga & meditation and facilitates sacred healing circles for people of color.