On May 3rd, 2025 , we had a wonderful conversation with YPL Finalist Mason Leopold about writing, the senses, and the connection between human and animal ecosystems. Mason attends San Lorenzo Valley High School.
Why do you write?
I really like all forms of art. I have what they call grapheme color synesthesia.
Every letter and every word has a lot of colorful associations for me. Consequently, it's super easy for me to find words because they're linked to colors. Writing feels the most accessible medium because it almost feels like I'm cheating sometimes, because of the way my brain is wired. But words have always been the path of least resistance.
It's very illuminating for me.
Is writing a high sensory activity for you?
Definitely. It's really immersive for me to write or read. Though it can become frustrating sometimes when I'm thinking, "Oh my god. This word is pink."
I'm trying to differentiate because pink would be an s. This word starts with pink, but what word am I looking for right now? And so sometimes it can feel like I'm too tangled up in everything that's going on. It's sometimes an obstacle, but overall, the experience of having multiple senses and multiple things firing is really unique.
And I probably wouldn't trade it for anything because it makes my writing what it is.
What writers have inspired you or have pushed you to write in the way that you do?
It rotates. I'll be completely honest, I got into poetry relatively recently. And so it took me a second to get into different writers and establish whose style I like consistently, and I don't even know if I necessarily have that.
There have been some books that have struck me. And by association, I've enjoyed the writing. So I like Kafka. I enjoy Ray Bradbury. I haven't read Fahrenheit 451, but I have read his short story collections. I like Aldo Leopold, same last name as me. He has really good nature writing, and it has been super inspirational because there's one quote from him I think about every day. It goes over and over in my head.
What's the quote?
He describes an animal track in the snow as if the animal were riding a chariot strapped to a star.
Outside of the Youth Poet Laureate program, have you had opportunities to meet other writers?
One of my first experiences with a real writer was in Downtown Santa Cruz. This guy was sitting on the side of the street with a typewriter, writing poetry books and putting them in matchboxes, and it was the most fascinating thing ever to me. My parents returned, like, to get me to go somewhere, and I kept going, “Can we go back?” “Can I read more of those?”
Eventually, I bought one. I don't have the poetry book anymore. I know it was about cats and dogs, but for me, that was just amazing. It's never left me, just meeting that random person.
How would you define success as a writer?
Being able to sit in Santa Cruz with your typewriter and being able to bring your passion to people. To be so confident in yourself and your work, and to be able to acclimate to all sorts of different scenarios and write about them or experience them and decide what ones you wanna write about, even. Having that discernment and confidence is when I think people have succeeded as writers.
What topics generate your best writing?
Nature, of course, comes up a lot, but interpersonal relationships. I think only one of the poems across my applications and the poems that I read at the celebration did not have to do with an interpersonal relationship of mine or a relationship with society. Now that I'm thinking about it, I think that my interest in environmental science is what drives my love for relationships in general, between humans, nature and ecology.
I think it all comes together, and it's like systems thinking, almost, but also with people. And I also really like people. The people I'm close to or the people that I've had strong experiences with also come up in my writing a lot, as well as the nature that I've had strong experiences with.
What other passions propel you forward in life?
I'm into science ecology. I also like a lot of forms of art. I do dabble in visual art. I wouldn't say that it's something that I'm super drawn to, but it's something that I like doing. And I also do some performing arts, music.
I play the flute, and I do theater tech. I'm drawn to learning. It's something that I really love. Just learning new things, reading more, writing more, taking more classes about things, and hiking. One of my passions that I don't think many people know about is basketball.
I've played it for four years, but then I quit because school got intense. But I still love the sport so much. It's my favorite. The feeling that I felt when playing sports is something that I now feel when I write poetry, which is pretty cool. The extreme passion and the reliance on your ability, except not my physical ability.
Favorite thing you've heard recently and favorite thing you've read?
I went to San Francisco on a junior trip. We went down to Land's End and walked around. I heard this ringing noise, like some sort of alarm or bell. And then it changed pitch, and I went down around the corner. A guy was playing the French horn with his hand as a mute standing right over the ocean. He had the most beautiful tone I've ever heard someone play an instrument with in my life.
Something that I read recently that I really enjoyed: The Worn Path by Eudora Welty. I had read it in my English class very recently, and I enjoyed how she wrote about the journey and place. And I thought that was an important lesson, that the story is so fulfilling sometimes. The journey is what is being written about.