Leila Mottley

Leila Mottley is an American novelist and poet born and raised in Oakland, California. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Nightcrawling, which was an Oprah’s Book Club pick and a Booker Prize nominee, as well as the poetry collection woke up no light. In 2018, she served as the Youth Poet Laureate of Oakland. Her second novel, The Girls Who Grew Big, was published in 2025.