Burying Norma Jeane

Already in the throes of grief after the sudden loss of her husband, Miriam Renata is shaken by the news that Hugh Hefner, the lecherous founder of Playboy, has been recently entombed next to Marilyn Monroe nearly sixty years after her death. Unable to accept her idol sharing a crypt with this succubus for eternity, Miriam and her teenaged daughter set out on a road trip across the West to liberate Norma Jeane and themselves.

Leah Rogin believes in ghosts and thinks Marilyn Monroe was an intellectual who will keep haunting us until we set her free. Leah has an MFA from Naropa University and her work has appeared in a range of literary journals, including The Rumpus, Cliterature, and WordRiot. Her chapbook Two Truths and a Lie was published by Horseless Press in 2016. Her flash fiction has been performed by the Buntport Theater Group and Stories on Stage and her nonfiction has been named by Mountain Gazette to their Best of the West list as well as published by The Denver Post and Powder Magazine. Her essay and collaborative reading list "108 Books to Read Before You Read Another White Dude," was published by Literary Citizen and used to reexamine book ordering and create library displays in Colorado. She was named to Westword's list of Colorado Creatives in 2019. Leah lives in the mountains west of Denver with a variety of creatures, both wild and domesticated. She's always up for a good road trip and / or a stroll around a cemetery.