ABOUT FIONA LEHN
Award-winning writer and creative artist Fiona Lehn kicked off her professional artistic career in the early 1990s. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing in her native California, Lehn became a teacher of at-risk high school students and co-founded a feminist street theatre group called Hermits and Guerrillas (HAG) in her hometown of Stockton. In 1993, she wrote and produced her first album, called Both. Her release of The Will CD a year later established Lehn as a contender in Northern California’s budding indie music arena.
Described as “half folkie, half-alt-rock goddess” by one critic, and a “rebel in her own realm” by another, Lehn’s eclectic style ranges from “poetry with a touch of music” to progressive rock with a humanist bent. She quickly became known for candid performances, clever wordplay, and passionate ideals. She performed solo across the U.S., gaining radio airplay, hip reviews, distribution from Goldenrod, and hundreds of fans.
In the mid-90s, following the release of her 3rd album, Boarder, Lehn often played with her band, fondly called FLUB (Fiona Lehn Underground Band). The band featured fellow Stocktonians Rob Warren (guitar), Jimmy Rehn (drums), and Dave Rapa (bass). FLUB highlights include performing at the Monterey Pop Festival and in NYC with friends Antigone Rising and with FLUB's Go on Girl II CD-mates. (BTW, anyone who saw the GOGII gig has blackmail material on Rapa for life! ;-)
In 1997, "Billboard" magazine raved about Lehn’s single “Waiting for Dogot” (from Boarder). A short-lived label deal in the U.K. resulted from that publicity and in the aftermath, Lehn moved to Vancouver, BC, to study recording engineering and music composition. She became a Canadian citizen soon after. Editing sound effects and music for film and television kept her fed while recording her five-song EP One for Me (2001). A year later, Lehn was awarded a FACTOR Professional Songwriting Demo Grant.
In 2003, she edited and designed sound for the short film “Sandra Gets Dumped” by Vancouver filmmaker Tracy D. Smith, garnering a Leo Award nomination for her work. In 2004, Lehn’s cover of Joe Jackson’s “On Your Radio” was released on a tribute CD, Different for Girls (Skipping Discs) in the United States. She then began work on Sunstaring, a theme album that was linked to her first novel, “The Cycle of Mefalinda.” Sunstaring remains Lehn’s most ambitious and dynamic musical work to date.
Even when producing music, Lehn was writing fiction. She made her first professional sale in 2008 when she won third place in the international science fiction writing contest, "Writers of the Future". Her winning novella, “The Assignment of Runner ETI”, was published in 2009 in the 25th edition of the Writers of the Future Anthology.
In addition to writing, Lehn served from 2007-2011 on the editorial collective of "Room" magazine, Canada's oldest feminist literary magazine, and edited three issues of Room in years 2009-2011.
In October 2011, Seattle's Aqueduct Press published Lehn's second novella, The Last Letter as part of their feminist science fiction literary series, "Conversation Pieces".