Raven Leilani

Raven Leilani Baptiste is an American writer who publishes under the name Raven Leilani. She published her debut novel Luster in 2020.[1]

Early life and education

Leilani grew up in a family of artists in the Bronx and moved to a suburb of Albany, New York.[1] She also grew up as a Seventh-day Adventist, and later left the church.[2] Having attended an art high school, Leilani expected she would be a visual artist.[1] She graduated college in 2012, where she studied English and psychology.[1][2] Her first job was as an imaging specialist at Ancestry.com. Later, she worked at a scientific journal, for the US Department of Defense, and as a delivery person for Postmates in Washington, D.C.[1] She also worked as an archivist at Macmillan.[3] In 2017, she began pursuing her MFA at New York University, where she studied under Zadie Smith and with writers Katie Kitamura, and Jonathan Safran Foer.[2][1] She now lives in Brooklyn.[2]

Career

Leilani's debut novel Luster received significant attention at its publishing. The book's publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux named it its novel of August 2020 as part of their Dare to Imagine campaign.[1] It is also part of Marie Claire's book club and has been lauded by Elle, the HuffPost, BuzzFeed News, the New York Times, and more.[4][5] It has been praised by Carmen Maria Machado, Brit Bennett, Angela Flournoy, and Zadie Smith.[1][2][6] The novel has also been long-listed for the Center of Fiction's first novel prize.[2][7]

Leilani's writing is influenced by her background as a visual artist, her life experiences, poetry, and a love of comic books and music.[1] She has written for publications like Esquire, the Cut, and Vogue.[8][9]

Works

Novels
  • Luster (2020) ISBN 978-0374194321

Short stories
  • Hard Water (2016), Cosmonauts Avenue
  • Breathing Exercise (2019), Yale Review.[10]
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References
  1. de León, Concepción (July 31, 2020). "Raven Leilani, a Flâneur Who Is Going Places". New York Times.
  2. Obaro, Tomi (August 4, 2020). "If You Like "Normal People," You'll Love "Luster"". BuzzFeed News.
  3. Varno, David (July 10, 2020). "Writers to Watch Fall 2020". Publisher's Weekly.
  4. Epstein, Rachel (July 29, 2020). "'Luster' Is Marie Claire's August Book Club Pick". Marie Claire.
  5. Fequiere, Roxanne (August 5, 2020). "Raven Leilani Is Your New Favorite Novelist". Elle.
  6. Smith, Zadie (August 4, 2020). "Zadie Smith on Her Former Student Raven Leilani's Debut Novel". Harpers Bazaar.
  7. "2020 First Novel Prize: The Long List". Center for Fiction. 2020.
  8. Leilani, Raven (July 23, 2020). "When I Left My Faith, I Went to Comic Con". Esquire.
  9. Leilani, Raven (August 4, 2020). "Turning My Back on the Faith that Saved Me". Vogue.
  10. Leilani, Raven (January 20, 2020). "Breathing Exercise". Wiley Online Library.
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