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Raven Leilani

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Raven Leilani
Born (1990-08-26) August 26, 1990 (age 34)
Pen nameRaven Leilani
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMarist College
New York University
Website
ravenleilani.weebly.com

Raven Leilani Baptiste (born August 26, 1990)[1] is an American writer who publishes under the name Raven Leilani. Her debut novel Luster was released in 2020 to critical acclaim.[2]

Early life and education

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Leilani grew up in a family of artists in the Bronx before they moved to a suburb of Albany, New York.[2] She grew up as a Seventh-day Adventist, and later left the church.[3] Having attended an art high school, Leilani expected to become a visual artist.[2] She graduated Marist College located in Poughkeepsie, New York in 2012, where she studied English and psychology.[2][3]

Her first job was as an imaging specialist at Ancestry.com, having previously worked in the archives of Marist College as an undergraduate. Later, she worked at a scientific journal, for the United States Department of Defense, and as a delivery person for Postmates in Washington, D.C.[2] She also worked as an archivist at Macmillan.[4] 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.[3][2] She now lives in Brooklyn.[3]

Career

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Leilani's debut novel Luster received significant attention at its publishing.[5] The book's publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux named the book its novel of August 2020 as part of their "Dare to Imagine" campaign.[2] It is also part of Marie Claire's book club and has been lauded by outlets including Elle, the HuffPost, BuzzFeed News, and The New York Times.[6][7] It has been praised by authors Carmen Maria Machado, Brit Bennett, Angela Flournoy, and Zadie Smith.[2][3][8] Kirkus Reviews awarded Luster the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Fiction.[9] Luster was also awarded the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize,[3][10] the 2020 John Leonard Prize at the National Book Critics Circle Awards,[11] the 2021 Dylan Thomas Prize,[12] and the 2021 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award[13]

Leilani's writing is influenced by her background as a visual artist, her life experiences, poetry, and a love of comic books and music.[2] She has written for publications including Esquire,[14] The Cut,[15] and Vogue.[16] She is a supporter of the boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, including publishers and literary festivals. She was an original signatory of the manifesto "Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions".[17]

Works

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Novels

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  • Luster. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2020. ISBN 9780374194321. OCLC 1119744688.

Short stories

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  • "Hard Water" (2016), Cosmonauts Avenue[18]
  • "Breathing Exercise" (2019), Yale Review[19]
  • "Airplane Mode" (2019). SmokeLong Quarterly[20]

References

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  1. ^ Sanchez, Brandon (October 2, 2020). "The startling debut of Raven Leilani". America Magazine. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i de León, Concepción (July 31, 2020). "Raven Leilani, a Flâneur Who Is Going Places". New York Times. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Obaro, Tomi (August 4, 2020). "If You Like "Normal People," You'll Love "Luster"". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  4. ^ Varno, David (July 10, 2020). "Writers to Watch Fall 2020". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  5. ^ "Book Marks reviews of Luster by Raven Leilani". Book Marks. Retrieved August 12, 2024.
  6. ^ Epstein, Rachel (July 29, 2020). "'Luster' Is Marie Claire's August Book Club Pick". Marie Claire. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  7. ^ Fequiere, Roxanne (August 5, 2020). "Raven Leilani Is Your New Favorite Novelist". Elle. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  8. ^ Smith, Zadie (August 4, 2020). "Zadie Smith on Her Former Student Raven Leilani's Debut Novel". Harpers Bazaar. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  9. ^ "2020 Kirkus Prize". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on December 25, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  10. ^ "Raven Leilani Wins the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize". The Center for Fiction. Archived from the original on January 23, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  11. ^ Beer, Tom (March 25, 2021). "National Book Critics Circle Presents Awards". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on July 13, 2023. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  12. ^ "Dylan Thomas Prize: New Yorker Raven Leilani wins accolade". BBC News. May 13, 2021. Archived from the original on May 13, 2021. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
  13. ^ "VCU Cabell First Novelist Award". firstnovelist.vcu.edu. Archived from the original on December 15, 2023. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  14. ^ Leilani, Raven (July 23, 2020). "When I Left My Faith, I Went to Comic Con". Esquire. Archived from the original on July 31, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  15. ^ Leilani, Raven (August 3, 2020). "Luster (excerpt)". The Cut. Archived from the original on August 16, 2020. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
  16. ^ Leilani, Raven (August 4, 2020). "Turning My Back on the Faith that Saved Me". Vogue. Archived from the original on September 8, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  17. ^ "Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions". Retrieved October 29, 2024.
  18. ^ Leilani, Raven (2019). "Hard Water". Cosmonauts Avenue. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020.
  19. ^ Leilani, Raven (January 20, 2020). "Breathing Exercise". The Yale Review. 107 (4): 40–50. doi:10.1111/yrev.13555. S2CID 241706744. Archived from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  20. ^ Leilani, Raven (January 28, 2019). "Airplane Mode". SmokeLong Quarterly. Archived from the original on April 27, 2024. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
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