LAS VEGAS, NM, January 28, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Leland William Howard with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Mr. Howard celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Mr. Howard is a talented writer and former educator of many years. Originally inspired to be on stage in acting, he first studied Bel Canto singing in New York City and was accepted into and performed with the Light Opera of Manhattan. Realizing that he would be able to create a wider variety of characters not dependent on his own physical appearance, gender, and age, Mr. Howard began penning plays and discovered, in time, that he was more adept at writing prose. He wrote a series of lyrical poems between 1980 and 1983 comprised in a collection entitled "Steps Below." Becoming involved in the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement in New Orleans, he wrote an essay "The Gay, The Church, and the Environment" (which he subsequently gave as an address before the New Orleans City Council on the occasion of the proposed Gay Rights Ordinance in April of 1984) and an interview story with Mary Jones, an openly lesbian delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1984, both of which articles were published in Impact, Gulf South Gay News in 1984. In 1985 his in-depth interview story with gay civil rights attorney James Kellogg who spearheaded the Louisiana Sexual Privacy Project, was sold to The Advocate, The National Gay News Magazine. Mr. Howard studied 19th and 20th century French literature in its original language at the Cours de Civilisation Francaise de la Sorbonne in 1987. As publicist for The Millbrook Playhouse in Mill Hall, Pennsylvania during the summer of 1990, Mr. Howard wrote press releases, interview stories, and feature stories for such newspapers as The Lockhaven Express and the Centre-Daily Times.
Mr. Howard's first novel Pirouettes Get No Applause in Goldengrove, published in 2002, chronicles the desperate but noble quest of a terminally-ill young American woman to live as fully as she can before she dies, and in the land of her unlived dreams, France, her odyssey of self discovery leading her into realms both sacred and profane amongst writers, artists, and misfits on Paris' Left Bank, wealthy hedonists on the French Riviera, and a group of nuns on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Mr. Howard also wrote a screenplay for this novel. His second novel, The Grass Hut, published in 2009, concerns the collective and separate lives of members of an American family on a summer's day during the Cold War-Sputnik era as they deal with interpersonal conflicts and memories dating back to the years of the Great Depression and the Second World War. His third book, a fictional memoir, Portrait of Betsy, published in 2011, is the story of how a lonely young man's life is transformed and his faith redeemed by a black border collie mix dog. His short story, "Elizabeth," concerning a young man who impersonates a woman during the Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans, was published in Chrysalis Quarterly in 2017. Mr. Howard notably hosted several public readings for Pirouettes Get No Applause in Goldengrove, The Grass Hut and Portrait of Betsy. In collaboration with photographer Jodie Olsen, Mr. Howard composed a series of poems to compliment her photographs in their collection entitled Pilgrimage in 2002. Mr. Howard also enjoyed the privilege of portraying such Shakespearian heroines as Portia, Olivia, and Viola under the guidance and inspiration of Herbert Berghof in an Experimental Shakespeare Workshop at the HB Studio in 1988.
Many years later, Mr. Howard took on the role of graduate teaching assistant in the department of English at New Mexico Highlands University in 2005 after returning to school to pursue a Master's Degree. In 2007, he presented a lecture entitled Changing the Face of Gender: Hollywood 1939-1949 as part of the Michael T. Carroll lecture series. Several years later, in 2011, Mr. Howard began teaching as an adjunct instructor of English Composition at Luna Community College in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where he remained until 2014. In capacity of adjunct instructor, he taught Introduction to Fiction at New Mexico Highlands University in both 2013 and 2015.
A former member of the Crescent City Coalition, Mr. Howard also served as "The Gay Writes" co-coordinator for the Southeast Conference of Lesbians and Gay Men in New Orleans in 1985. He is a former member of the Louisiana Gay Political Action Caucus, the New Orleans Gay Men's Chorus, with whom he performed at the First National Gay Choral Festival in New York City 's Lincoln Center, and the St. Cecelia Chorus. Mr. Howard has been cited in approximately 20 editions of Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World.
Mr. Howard first studied at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee between 1968 and 1971. He then studied voice under Florence Morsbach in New York City from 1971 to 1973, received the Certificat de la Langue Francaise from the Cours de Civilisation Francaise de la Sorbonne in 1987, and studied acting under Herbert Berghof at the HB Studio in New York City in 1988. Years later, Mr. Howard returned to college, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and creative writing at Hunter College in 2004 and a Master of Arts in English Literature at New Mexico Highlands University in 2008.
For the past ten years, Mr. Howard has devoted a significant part of his time and love in rescuing and caring for homeless cats, many of whom he has adopted out to a sanctuary and to private individuals.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Leland William Howard has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
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