Leanne Toshiko Simpson

Leanne Toshiko Simpson is a mixed-race Yonsei writer, educator and psychiatric survivor from Toronto. She loves writing joyful, messy, laugh-out-loud stories about living with mental illness, and the moments of hope that help us get out of bed day after day.

Leanne is a graduate of UTSC Creative Writing and the University of Guelph’s MFA, and is currently completing an EdD in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto. She teaches seminars in disability arts and BIPOC literature at Trinity College and is a co-founder of Mata Ashita, a national writing circle for Nikkei communities.

Named Scarborough’s Emerging Writer in 2016 and nominated for the Journey Prize in 2019, Leanne also launched a reflective writing program at Canada’s largest mental health centre after being hospitalized for bipolar disorder. Her debut novel Never Been Better is inspired by the community she has found through her mental health advocacy work post-institutionalization.