Leila Mottley is the author of the novel Nightcrawling, an Oprah’s Book Club pick and New York Times best seller. Nightcrawling was longlisted for the Booker Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy award. Mottley was the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate and published her debut poetry collection woke up no light in 2024. Mottley’s writing has also been published in The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Marie Claire, and other publications. Her sophomore novel, The Girls Who Grew Big, which she worked on while at MacDowell in 2023, came out with Knopf in 2025.
Leila Mottley
Disciplines:
Literature – fiction
Disciplines:
Literature – fiction
Based in Oakland, CA
Residencies: 2023, 2025
More:
www.leilamottley.com
Portrait by: Joanna Eldredge Morrissey
Fellow Works Supported by MacDowell
The Girls Who Grew Big (novel)
Studios
Mansfield
Leila Mottley worked in the Mansfield studio.
The Helen Coolidge Mansfield Studio was donated by graduates of the Mansfield War Service Classes for Reconstruction Aides. Mrs. Mansfield helped found the New York MacDowell Club, which was among the biggest clubs by the same name around the country honoring the legacy of Edward MacDowell and supporting MacDowell. The small…