Leora Krygier

Leora Krygier is a former Los Angeles Superior Court, Juvenile Division judge. She’s the author of When She Sleeps (Toby Press), which was lauded for its “luminous prose” (Newsweek) and praised by Booklist, Library Journal, and Kirkus. It was also a New York Public Library Selection for “Best Books for the Teen Age.” She’s also the author of Juvenile Court: A Judges Guide for Young Adults and their Parents (Rowan & Littlefield) and Keep Her (She Writes Press), a young adult novel reviewed as a “vibrantly dazzling literary cocktail on the restorative powers of love.” She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, David.

Twitter: @LeoraKrygier

Instagram: @LeoraKrygierAuthor

Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing?

My other artistic outlet is definitely photography. From the moment I got my hands on my husband’s SLR camera, which was an actual film camera, I was hooked. We were living in Paris at the time, and he was working. I didn’t speak much French and walking around Paris with the camera and taking photographs made me feel like I was a part of the city. I was the old school version of “Emily in Paris” without her fabulous clothes.

Later, I learned to develop my own black and white photographs in a makeshift darkroom I created out of a storeroom in our Paris apartment. When we returned to the States I took a few master classes in photography at UCLA, experimented with hand coloring black and white photographs and collage.

These days, my iphone is my go-to camera . It’s always snug in my back pocket for photographic opportunities. Although I sometimes miss my old SLR, using the iphone is so much better than lugging that heavy SLR around. I also love manipulating photos with all kinds of fun apps and sharing them on Instagram.

I can’t believe it, but last count I had more than 19,000 photos on my iphone.

Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?

I love to listen to all kinds of music – pop, rock, country, jazz, blue-grass, but with this memoir I found myself listening to opera. My mother was an opera singer, a soprano, but as child, and later as a teen, I didn’t appreciate the very specific style of this genre. As I wrote this memoir, however, listening to opera became my inspiration. I began to understand my mother’s passion and love for the music. It allowed me to connect with my mother in a way that hadn’t been possible before.

 Is there a work of art that you love & why? Have you ever visited it in person?

There are two pieces of classic art that stand out to me, and which I’ve had the pleasure of visiting.

The first is Rodin’s “The Thinker.” I grew up in Philadelphia, home to the Rodin Museum, and The Thinker was one of the first pieces of art I was exposed to as a child. The iconic sculpture can be seen from the parkway, and it seemed so amazing to me as we caught a glimpse of it in our car. Later, when I lived in Paris, I visited the smaller but equally fascinating Rodin villa just outside the city, where Rodin lived. It gave me the opportunity to take another look at the sculpture, and its power – a man lost in thought.

The second beloved piece is the “The Birth of Venus by Botticelli” in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she’d emerged from the sea. Sea and land merge in this oil painting. Truly one of the classical masterpieces, there’s something also very modern about her in her beauty and boldness. I was happy I had the opportunity to see the Venus, even among the large crowds of the Uffizi Gallery.

 Do you collect anything? If so, what, why and for how long?

I’m not much of a collector of things, liking very minimal and uncluttered spaces. A few years ago, though, I started collected Limoges teacups, going around to outdoor flea markets and picking up different mismatched tea cups and saucers here and there. I’m not even sure what drew me to these delicate teacups. I think possibly because they represented a quieter, gentler age? I stopped collecting awhile back and they’re stored away on the top shelf of a cupboard. Every once in awhile though, when I host a baby or bridal shower tea party, I unwrap them (carefully) and enjoy them once again.

 Vacation druthers…City or rural destination? Why?

I have to say both, but I probably lean mostly towards a city destination. However ….. my first destination post Covid vaccination was Yosemite National Forest. It was a first time for me even though I’ve lived in California for many years. I could not get over the purity and beauty of this national treasure – the waterfalls and creeks, the trees, and El-Capitan, where I saw people climbing up this sheer rock.

Usually, though, I’m drawn to cities, especially where other languages are spoken. I love just meandering around, and don’t plan or schedule too much ahead of time. It’s great to just fall into a local restaurant or dead-end street and discover something that’s not on a map.