About Leah Angstman

Leah Angstman is a historian and transplanted Michigander living in Boulder, unsure of what feels like home anymore. Her debut novel, Out Front the Following Sea, a look at King William’s War in a brutal 17th-century New England, was released by Regal House Publishing in January 2022 and was the recipient of over 35 awards and accolades. Her debut collection of short histories and novellas, Shoot the Horses First, was released by Kernpunkt Press in February 2023 and has won over 25 awards, including multiple gold medals, juror’s choice awards, and best overall picks. Her third book, Falcon in the Dive, a novel of the French Revolution, was released from Regal House Publishing in February 2024 and has been a finalist or winner of over 10 awards and counting. Her fourth book, The Only Way to Cheat a Hangman, a novel of the decline of the Gold Rush in 1850s Sacramento Valley, is forthcoming from Past Imperfect in the fall of 2025 and has already been a finalist for three awards. Two poetry books are forthcoming from Augustan Age in late 2025 and 2026: The Sighs of Women Becoming, about women whose lives were tragically cut short under mysterious circumstances, and Reverse Migration: not coming home, a collection about the Midwest that has already garnered five accolades, including being selected as an award finalist by bestselling author Charles Martin.

Leah serves as founder and executive editor for Alternating Current Press and The Coil magazine and as a freelance copyeditor. She has also previously served as a fiction and nonfiction reviewer for Publishers Weekly; a contributing editor, culture writer, and proofreader for Pacific Standard magazine; a copyeditor for Mother Jones; a copyeditor and travel writer for Departures magazine; and a copyeditor for Underscore News, which included editing partnerships with Portland Tribune, High Country News, and ProPublica. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, Tupelo Quarterly, Electric Literature, Midwestern Gothic, The Nashville Review, The Adirondack Review, Atticus Review, Slice Magazine, Pacific Standard, The Maine Review, and Shenandoah.

She has also served as an appointed government-advisory vice chair of a Colorado historical commission, an appointed liaison to a Colorado historic preservation government-advisory committee, and a member of the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Ohio History Connection, and Louisville (Colorado) History Foundation, as well as a founding Quartermaster member of the American Battlefield Trust and a volunteer at her local mining-history museum. She is also a member of the Colorado Authors League and the Boulder Valley Writers. You can find her on social media as @leahangstman.

Out Front the Following Sea was the winner of the Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA) Evvy Book Award Gold Medal for Historical Fiction, CIPA Evvy Book Award Gold Medal for Cover Design, Herb Tabak CIPA Choice Award for Fiction, Pencraft Seasonal Book Award for Adventure Fiction (two times), Tyler R. Tichelaar Award for Best Historical Fiction, Self-Publishing Review (SPR) Book Award Overall for Fiction, New England Society Book Award for Fiction, Feathered Quill Book Award (FQBA) Gold Medal for Historical Fiction, FQBA Silver Medal for Adult Fiction, FQBA Silver Medal for Debut Fiction, Reader Views (RV) Gold Award for Historical Fiction, RV Silver Award for General Fiction/Novel, Independent Author Network (IAN) Grand Prize: Third Place Fiction Book of the Year, IAN Book of the Year Award for Outstanding First Novel, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Benjamin Franklin Award Silver Medal for Best New Voice in Fiction, Independent Publisher Book Award Ippy Silver Medal for Best U.S. Northeast Regional Fiction, and Readers’ Favorite Book Award Bronze Medal for Adventure Fiction; was a finalist for the Chaucer Book Award for Early Historical Fiction (two times), Eric Hoffer Book Award, Da Vinci Eye Award, National Indie Excellence Award (NIEA) for Historical Fiction, NIEA for Northeast Regional Fiction, American Writing Award (AWA) for Historical Fiction (two times), AWA for Cover Design, Colorado Authors League Book Award for Historical Fiction, IAN Book of the Year Award for Action/Adventure, IAN Book of the Year Award for Historical Fiction, IAN Book of the Year Award for Literary Fiction, and Big Other Readers’ Choice Award; was shortlisted for the Hawthorne Prize; and was longlisted for the Reading the West Book Award for Debut Fiction and Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award.

Shoot the Horses First was the winner of the Shorts Award for Americana Fiction, Next Generation Indie Book Award Gold Medal for Short Story Collections, National Indie Excellence Award (NIEA) Juror’s Choice, NIEA Gold Medal for Short Stories, Independent Author Network (IAN) Book of the Year Award for Outstanding Short Story Collection, Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA) Evvy Book Award Gold Medal for Fiction Anthologies, Indie Author Project Colorado Fiction Award, Feathered Quill Book Award Gold Medal for Short Stories/Anthologies, Eric Hoffer Book Award for Best Micro Press Book, Independent Publisher Book Award Ippy Silver Medal for Novella/Short Fiction, Colorado Authors League Book Award for Short Stories, Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE) Fiction Book of the Year, IPNE Gold Medal for Fiction, Foreword Indies Honorable Mention for Historical Fiction, and Readers’ Favorite Honorable Mention for Fiction Anthology; and was a finalist for the Launch Pad Prose Competition Top-50, Self-Publishing Review (SPR) Book Award, Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Short Fiction, High Plains Book Award (HPBA) for Short Stories, HPBA for Women Writers, and Big Other Book Award for Fiction; and was longlisted for the Reading the West Book Award for Fiction and the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award.

Falcon in the Dive was the winner of the Next Generation Indie Book Award (NGIBA) for Second Novel, Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA) Evvy Book Award Gold Medal for Historical Fiction, CIPA Evvy Book Award Gold Medal for Thrillers/Suspense, and Herb Tabak CIPA Choice Award for Fiction; and was a finalist for the NGIBA for General Fiction/Novel, NGIBA for Pre-1900s Historical Fiction, NGIBA for Regional Fiction, and Clue Book Award for Historical Suspense (two times); was a semifinalist for the Goethe Book Award for Historical Fiction (two times); and was shortlisted for the Hawthorne Prize.

Upcoming titles: The Only Way to Cheat a Hangman was a finalist for the Laramie Book Award for Pioneer Fiction (two times) and Faulkner–Wisdom Creative Writing Competition for Novel. Reverse Migration: not coming home was a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award judged by author Charles Martin, Cowles Poetry Book Prize from Southeast Missouri State University Press, and Richard Snyder Memorial Prize from Ashland University; and was a semifinalist for the Hillary Gravendyk Prize and Willow Run Poetry Book Award.

Leah is also the winner of the Loudoun Library Foundation Poetry Award and Nantucket Directory Poetry Award, and is a two-time top-10 finalist for the Saluda River Prize for Poetry, judged once by South Carolina Poet Laureate Marjory Heath Wentworth and once by poet Ray McManus. Her writing has additionally been a placed finalist in the Bevel Summers Prize for Short Fiction from Washington and Lee University, Pen 2 Paper Writing Competition in both poetry and fiction categories, Blue Bonnet Review Poetry Contest, Baltimore Science Fiction Society Poetry Contest, and West Coast Eisteddfod Poetry Competition. She has earned four Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination.

Awards &
recognitions

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