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Leslie Hsu Oh

Travel Writer | Photographer | Editor | seen in T+L, NatGeo, CNT,Outside, Parents, Smithsonian

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    • Award-winning
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    • Fireweed: A Memoir
    • Fiction
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    • Indigenous Knowledge
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Author

"Leslie Hsu Oh is one of the most innovative outdoor writers today. Her prose style has a combination of spare lyricism, perfect rhythm and sensory power that seems almost like magic, bringing her readers fully into the worlds she re-creates. As a mother who goes on backcountry expeditions with her young children, and an adopted daughter of a Diné and Tlingit family, she also brings a perspective that's seldom heard — a voice capable of overturning outdated formulas that have long dominated the genre. She is part of a generation of writers who are redefining what it means to write about nature and adventure and to seek a more inclusive sense of place in the wild and the world." ~Katie Ives | Alpinist Magazine, Editor-in-Chief

"Leslie, I just want to say that I read your piece in Outside on your incredible anniversary hike through Chilkoot Pass today, and was in tears. Not just for the struggles that you and Thomas overcame, but for the insightful, personal and emotional journey that shared, and what you'd dealt with leading up to the trip also. I want to tell you that I really appreciated the piece, your strength and openness as a human and a wife/mother/woman/adventurer/perseverer is apparent and so inspiring. Really amazing stuff, and I hope to read more of your work soon."
~Jess Smith | VP of OutsidePR

Leslie Hsu Oh is an author, photographer, editor and founder of an award-winning nonprofit. Through the lens of conservation & wildlife, culinary, culture, gear, family travel, health & wellness, indigenous knowledge, outdoor adventures, sustainability, watersports and wintersports, she hopes to make a difference in this world.

By the age of twenty, she had white water rafted, spelunked, hiked, and ridden on horseback through nearly all the national parks in the United States and Canada when both her birth mother and eighteen-year-old brother die from hepatitis B. She is currently writing a memoir about the years that followed their death and how she turned to the natural world and the indigenous people most intimate to these places for answers.

She rappelled down a waterfall in Maui, photographed whales from a helicopter (and flown one), kayaked in Puerto Rico’s bio bay, fly fished beneath a waterfall in the highlands of Iceland, paraglided off a cliff in the Alps, ice climbed a glacier in Alaska, jumped out of an airplane in sight of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park and was invited by Elders to ceremonies or sacred landscapes that are not open to outsiders. Leslie has degrees in biology, ethnobotany, MFA in creative writing and public health from Harvard. Her work (photographs and words) appears in Alaska Magazine, Alpinist, Backpacker Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Fourth Genre, Huffington Post, National Geographic, Outside Magazine, Parenting Magazine, Real Simple, Saveur, Smithsonian Magazine, Sierra Magazine, Travel + Leisure, Vogue, Washington Post.

Leslie is a Champion of Change for the White House in Asian American and Pacific Islander Storytelling and Art, a Schweitzer Fellow for Life. Her work has been named among the distinguished stories of the year by Best American Essays. In four consecutive years, she won 7 gold medals, silvers in North American Travel Journalist Association's Travel Media Competition and two bronze medals (one in Society of American Travel Writer Foundation's  Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award. Read more about Leslie here.

Travel + Leisure | The 11 Best Ski and Snowboard Goggles of 2022

Travel + Leisure | The 11 Best Ski and Snowboard Goggles of 2022

November 8, 2022

Travel + Leisure | The 8 Best Hiking Shoes and Boots for Women of 2022

Travel + Leisure | The 8 Best Hiking Shoes and Boots for Women of 2022

November 8, 2022

Travel + Leisure | The Best Family Tents, According to Camping Experts

Travel + Leisure | The Best Family Tents, According to Camping Experts

November 8, 2022

Travel + Leisure | The Best Travel Toothbrushes of 2022leslie

Travel + Leisure | The Best Travel Toothbrushes of 2022leslie

November 8, 2022

Travel + Leisure | The Best Sleeping Pads of 2022

Travel + Leisure | The Best Sleeping Pads of 2022

November 8, 2022

Travel + Leisure | The Best Camping Lanterns for Your Next Outdoor Getaway

Travel + Leisure | The Best Camping Lanterns for Your Next Outdoor Getaway

July 22, 2022

Travel + Leisure | The Best Sleeping Bags of 2022, Tested by an Expert

Travel + Leisure | The Best Sleeping Bags of 2022, Tested by an Expert

July 10, 2022

Travel + Leisure | The Best Hiking Socks for Every Type of Adventure

Travel + Leisure | The Best Hiking Socks for Every Type of Adventure

July 10, 2022

Alpinist Magazine: Lost and Found

Alpinist Magazine: Lost and Found

March 17, 2022

SF Gate | There’s a passport backlog in the Bay Area and nationwide. Here are some hacks to get yours faster.

SF Gate | There’s a passport backlog in the Bay Area and nationwide. Here are some hacks to get yours faster.

July 23, 2021

National Geographic Travel | Why is This Totem Pole Travelling Across America?

National Geographic Travel | Why is This Totem Pole Travelling Across America?

July 23, 2021

TripSavvy | Why Are So Many Hotels Opening Near National Parks?

TripSavvy | Why Are So Many Hotels Opening Near National Parks?

May 10, 2021

Travel + Leisure | All in Good Time

Travel + Leisure | All in Good Time

February 13, 2021

Vogue | Looking for a Socially Distanced Escape? Go to a River

Vogue | Looking for a Socially Distanced Escape? Go to a River

August 20, 2020

Backpacker | The Living Forest

Backpacker | The Living Forest

August 17, 2020

National Geographic | Talking to Kids about Xenophobia

National Geographic | Talking to Kids about Xenophobia

May 26, 2020

Adventure Travel Trade Association | Strategies for Coping during Pandemic

Adventure Travel Trade Association | Strategies for Coping during Pandemic

May 3, 2020

Outside | Ocean Nerds, Check Out These Online Experiences

Outside | Ocean Nerds, Check Out These Online Experiences

April 30, 2020

Parents | Meet parents whose passion for the planet inspired them to change

Parents | Meet parents whose passion for the planet inspired them to change

March 30, 2020

Jetstar| Water World

Jetstar| Water World

February 1, 2020

Parents | 5 Things We Can All Learn from Tiger Parents

Parents | 5 Things We Can All Learn from Tiger Parents

December 24, 2019

REI | Good Gear: Buy a Flannel, Help Save the Ocean

REI | Good Gear: Buy a Flannel, Help Save the Ocean

December 15, 2019

Outside | 5 of the Most Incredible Fly-Fishing Trips

Outside | 5 of the Most Incredible Fly-Fishing Trips

October 5, 2019

Adventure Journal | Painting the Next Chapter

Adventure Journal | Painting the Next Chapter

September 5, 2019

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