American · b. 2003
Leila Mottley was nineteen when she published "Nightcrawling" (2022), a novel based on a real Oakland police scandal—officers who sexually exploited a teenage girl. Her protagonist, Kiara, navigates poverty, sex work, and institutional betrayal in prose that's spare and unsentimental. Mottley grew up in Oakland and brings street-level knowledge to material that could easily become sensational. The novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize and established its young author as a voice to follow.