Leigh Stein

Leigh Stein, an American poet, novelist, memoirist, and critic, studies the emotional effects of digital culture. What to Miss When, issued by Soft Skull Press in 2021, gathers poems composed during the pandemic's early disruptions. Online feeds, pop culture, wellness language, feminism, prayer, work, and mortality enter a voice alert to both absurdity and loss. Stein uses humor without treating isolation lightly, showing how shared screens could create intimacy while narrowing daily experience. Her books also include the novel Self Care, the memoir Land of Enchantment, and earlier poetry collections. Her literary range remains broad and varied. In What to Miss When, familiar media fragments become markers of time and private feeling. The result places a particular historical moment beside questions about attention, memory, and what people choose to notice.