Meet Our Editor

Shirley Anne Leonard, Editor of WestWard Quarterly from 2003-2024, passed away on May 22, 2024. You can read her obituary here: Shirley Anne Leonard. This magazine will continue under the editorship of her husband, Dr. Richard Leonard.

Formerly known as Shirley Poirier Malmgren, Shirley Anne studied at Carl Sandburg College where she earned the Certificate in Desktop Publishing and received other awards. Author of more than 800 poems, she became editor of WestWard Quarterly in 2003 succeeding Marsha Ward.

In addition to WestWard Quarterly, Shirley Anne published five chapbooks through Laudemont Press. Her poetry has appeared in Time of Singing, Ancient Paths, and The FORESEE (bulletin of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference). Several of her poems have also been published online by Reconciliation Press (no longer online), Christian Poetry, and Quill & Parchment. Poems she wrote also appear in A Glimpse of Heaven, compiled by Richard Leonard and JoNancy Sundberg (Howard Books, 2007) and Secure the Fort (and Remain Under God) edited by Lucy Cain (XLibris, 2007). She had been a member of Christian Writers Fellowship International and the Illinois State Poetry Society.

Shirley Anne was mother of five, grandmother of eight, and great-grandmother of nine. In May 2025, a year after her passing, Lampstand Books (a division of Laudemont Press) published Forgotten Places, a selection of 240 of Shirley Anne's poems, as a memorial to her and her poetic gift. It is available via Amazon.com or from Laudemont Press. A selection of her poems also appears on the Laudemont Ministries web site.