Leanne Shapton is an illustrator, author, art director and publisher based in New York City. She is the co-founder, with photographer Jason Fulford, of J&L Books, an internationally-distributed not-for-profit imprint specializing in art and photography books. Shapton grew up in Mississauga, Ontario, and attended McGill Univesity and Pratt Institute. After interning at SNL, Harper's Magazine and for illustator James McMullan,
she began her career at the National Post where she edited and art-directed the daily Avenue page, an award-winning double-page feature covering news and cultural trends. She went on to become art director of Saturday Night, the National Post's weekly news magazine.
Shapton has worked as a freelance designer, an editor for an art magazine prototype at Condé Nast, and contributed illustrations to New York Magazine, The New Yorker, Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Condé Nast Traveler, Jane, Talk, and Departures. She has designed and illustrated numerous book covers for Knopf, Doubleday, Simon and Schuster, John Murray, and Penguin.
In 2003, Shapton published her first book of drawings, titled Toronto. She designed the titles and for the films The Squid And The Whale and Margot At The Wedding. Other film work includes designing DVD covers for The Criterion Collection. From 2006 to 2008 Shapton contributed a regular travel column to Elle magazine, consisting of writing, photography and illustration. From 2008 to 2009, Shapton was the art director of The New York Times Op-Ed page.
Leanne Shapton published Was She Pretty? in November 2008 and Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry, in February 2009, with Sarah Crichton Books / Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She is currently compiling a book for Drawn and Quaterley. When not working for publication, she makes drawings, paintings, wooden books, and creates designs for textiles. Shapton is represented by The Wylie Agency.