Raven Leilani Baptiste (born August 26, 1990) is an American writer who publishes under the name Raven Leilani. Her debut novel Luster was released in 2020 to critical acclaim.
Leilani grew up in a family of artists in the Bronx. She grew up as a Seventh-day Adventist, and later left the church.Leilani studied painting, English, and psychology in undergrad. She attended Marist College located in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Before publishing her novels, she worked for Ancestry.com, a scientific journal in Washington, D.C., and as a delivery person for Postmates She also worked at Macmillan. In 2017, she began pursuing her MFA at New York University, where she studied under Zadie Smith and Katie Kitamura. She now lives in Brooklyn.
Leilani's debut novel Luster received significant attention at its publishing. The book's publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux named the book its novel of August 2020 as part of their "Dare to Imagine" campaign. 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. It has been praised by authors Carmen Maria Machado, Brit Bennett, Angela Flournoy, and Zadie Smith. Kirkus Reviews awarded Luster the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. Luster was also awarded the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the 2020 John Leonard Prize at the National Book Critics Circle Awards, the 2021 Dylan Thomas Prize, and the 2021 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award
Leilani's writing is influenced by her background as a visual artist, her life experiences, poetry, and a love of comic books and music. She has written for publications including Esquire, The Cut, and Vogue.