The Leighton Explosion

A lifetime of poetry. In 1986, after she got a job at big city rock magazine called, HIT PARADER, Anne Leighton sent her first works to Washington DC to get her first copyright notice. It was for a manuscript she christened THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION. She couldn't find a publisher and continued to write poetry plus articles for rock magazines, She grew as a human being and artist. In addition to writing for national rock, cat, and fitness magazines including BILLBOARD, GOLDMINE, CREEM, CATFANCY, INSIDE KUNG FU/KARATE, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, she got involved with the music world as a music services person, generally handling publicity, management, consulting, and booking. Anne's serviced many musicians, most significantly Grand Funk Railroad, Vonda Shepard, Blackmore's Night, Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius, Phoebe Legere, the Grand Slambovians, Jann Klose, and KJ Denhert, Elliott Murphy, and Jethro Tull/Martin Barre/Ian Anderson (who wrote the foreword to THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION). She's won a number of writing awards and received honorable mention for 1993 BILLBOARD songwriting contest for the song "Carry Across" with Jessie Galante. She also hosted radio shows for 10 years on commercial and college radio in Western and Downstate New York. When Anne appeared on the GRAMMY-nominated album, HEALTHY FOOD FOR THOUGHT: GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT, she met Canadian poetry publisher Ken Cowle, who took interest in her work. She said yes, and is finding acclaim from a number of friends. "Anne Leighton is hilarious." -Bebe Buell, author of REBEL HEART, singer, animal lover" "Whether musing about pets or past loves, the pleasure of her word-play is palpable." -Sander Roscoe Wolff, LBPost.com" "You have an awesome book Anne, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and found myself, smiling often, and laughing out loud at times too, with your great sense of humor and wit." -Ken Cowle, Anne's publisher at Soul Asylum books" Look for Anne sharing her poetry live through 2017 in New England, Washington, DC, Eastern Pennsylvania, Buffalo, Bronx and Manhattan. She would love to open for Courtney Barnett. big here I am sitting with the bums and pigeons at Herald Square. Some "businessman" drops his habitual DAILY NEWS in the garbage (it's 8:30 a.m.). A wiser businessman scoops the NEWS out of the can-there's waste in American industry. And I can see the top of The Empire State Building. I was just up there for a minute looking, and then I started crying, 'cause Manhattan's not that big. I could see cars and buses clearly in detail going up some avenue. I could see bridges and clouds and tree branches in Gramercy Park with the bums and pigeons. I could see the Statue of Liberty waving her torch at me, "Hey Annie, keep trying, keep trying. You ARE on top of your city." For more information: Contact Anne Leighton:718-881-8183, Anne@AnneLeighton.com" For Book Orders: Ken Cowle, authors@soulasylumpoetry.com, 905-722-7743" www.anneleighton.com" workinggalrockandroll.blogspot.com