Leonard E. Nathan, (November 8[1] 1924 – June 3, 2007) was an American poet, critic, and professor emeritus of rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley where he retired in 1991.

[2] The author of 17 volumes of poetry, Nathan has been described as "a fixture for 50 years in literary circles both on and off the UC Berkeley campus."

Ted Kooser, a recent U.S. poet laureate and an English professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, counted Nathan among his mentors, particularly for his "economy of words."

That same year, Princeton University Press published Nathan's Returning Your Call, which was nominated for a National Book Award.

[2] His prose included Diary of a Left-Handed Bird Watcher and The Poet's Work, an Introduction to Czesław Miłosz.