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Raven Leilani
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. Early life and education Leilani grew up in a family of artists in the Bronx before they moved to a suburb of Albany, New York. She grew up as a Seventh-day Adventist, and later left the church. Having attended an art high school, Leilani expected to become a visual artist. She graduated Marist College located in Poughkeepsie, NY in 2012, where she studied English and psychology. 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 US Department of Defense, and as a delivery person for Postmates in Washington, D.C. She also worked as an archivist at Macmillan. In 2017, she began pursuing her MFA at New York University, where she studied under Zadie Smith and with w ...
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Luster (novel)
''Luster'' is a 2020 debut novel by Raven Leilani. It follows a young Black woman who gets involved with a middle-aged white man in an open marriage. ''Luster was'' released on August 4, 2020 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It received mainly positive critical reception and won the 2020 Kirkus Prize for fiction. In December 2020, the novel was found in Literary Hub to have made 16 lists of the year's best books. Plot ''Luster'' follows Edie, a Black woman in her twenties who lives in New York City and works as an editorial assistant. She meets Eric, a white man in his forties who is in an open marriage. Eric and his wife have a 12-year-old adoptive daughter, Akila, who is also Black. Edie begins a sexual relationship with Eric and moves to New Jersey to live with his family after she gets fired. Major themes Critics noted that the character of Edie is a ''flâneur'', which is notable as it is typically a literary position occupied by white male characters. Critical reception ...
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BuzzFeed News
''BuzzFeed News'' is an American news website published by BuzzFeed. It has published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was heavily criticized, and the FinCEN Files. Since its establishment in 2011, it has won the George Polk Award, The Sidney Award, National Magazine Award, the National Press Foundation award, and the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. History ''BuzzFeed News'' began as a division of BuzzFeed in December 2011 with the appointment of Ben Smith as editor-in-chief. In 2013, Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Schoofs of ProPublica was hired as head of investigative reporting. By 2016, ''BuzzFeed News'' had 20 investigative journalists. The British division of ''BuzzFeed News'' is headed by Janine Gibson, formerly of ''The Guardian''. Notable coverage includes a 2012 partnership with the BBC on match-fixing in professional tennis, and inequities in the U.S. H-2 guest worker program, reporting of which won a National Ma ...
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Vogue (magazine)
''Vogue'' is an American monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine that covers many topics, including haute couture fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway. Based at One World Trade Center One World Trade Center (also known as One World Trade, One WTC, and formerly Freedom Tower) is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Mer ... in the FiDi, Financial District of Lower Manhattan, ''Vogue'' began in 1892 as a weekly newspaper before becoming a monthly magazine years later. Since its founding, ''Vogue'' has featured numerous actors, musicians, models, athletes, and other prominent celebrities. The largest issue published by ''Vogue'' magazine was the September 2012 edition, containing 900 pages. The British Vogue, British ''Vogue'', launched in 1916, was the first international edition, while the Italian version ''Vogue Italia'' has been called the top fashion magazin ...
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The Cut (website)
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', it was brasher and less polite, and established itself as a cradle of New Journalism. Over time, it became more national in scope, publishing many noteworthy articles on American culture by writers such as Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Nora Ephron, John Heilemann, Frank Rich, and Rebecca Traister. In its 21st-century incarnation under editor-in-chief Adam Moss, "The nation's best and most-imitated city magazine is often not about the city—at least not in the overcrowded, traffic-clogged, five-boroughs sense", wrote then-''Washington Post'' media critic Howard Kurtz, as the magazine increasingly published political and cultural stories of national significance. Since its redesign and relaunch in 2004, the magazine has won more National Mag ...
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Esquire (magazine)
''Esquire'' is an American men's magazine. Currently published in the United States by Hearst Communications, it also has more than 20 international editions. Founded in 1933, it flourished during the Great Depression and World War II under the guidance of founders Arnold Gingrich, David A. Smart and Henry L. Jackson while during the 1960s it pioneered the New Journalism movement. After a period of quick and drastic decline during the 1990s, the magazine revamped itself as a lifestyle-heavy publication under the direction of David Granger. History ''Esquire'' was first issued in October 1933 as an offshoot of trade magazine ''Apparel Arts'' (which later became '' Gentleman's Quarterly''; ''Esquire'' and ''GQ'' would share ownership for almost 45 years). The magazine was first headquartered in Chicago and then, in New York City. It was founded and edited by David A. Smart, Henry L. Jackson and Arnold Gingrich. Jackson died in the crash of United Airlines Flight 624 in 1948, ...
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First Novelist Award
The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award is an American literary award for debut novels. It has been presented annually since 2002 on behalf of Virginia Commonwealth University's MFA in Creative Writing Program. Nominations are solicited from MFA programs nationwide as well as from publishers, editors, agents, and writers. The prize includes $5000 cash and participation in an on-campus event in Richmond, Va. at VCU that focuses on the creation, publication, and promotion processes involved with a first novel. The award is more formally known as the "Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award." History The award was created in 2001 by playwright Laura Browder and novelist Tom De Haven. In addition, Richmond writer and VCU alumnus David Baldacci funded and supported the fledgling award in its early years. In 2007, VCU Libraries became a partner with the VCU Department of English in offering the award, and helping fund the prize and a fellowship for a graduate student to ...
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Dylan Thomas Prize
The Dylan Thomas Prize is a leading prize for young writers presented annually. The prize, named in honour of the Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas, brings international prestige and a remuneration of £30,000 (~$46,000). It is open to published writers in the English language under the age of forty. The prize was originally awarded biennially, but became an annual award in 2010. Entries for the prize are submitted by the publisher, editor, or agent; for theatre plays and screenplays, by the producer. A Dylan Thomas literary prize was first awarded during the 1980s, known as the Dylan Thomas Award, following the campaign to have a plaque in the poet's memory placed in Westminster Abbey.About
, The Dylan Prize website
Surplus income from a fund-raising concert sponsored by the television company
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National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English"."About: Supporting Book Criticism and Literary Culture Since 1974"
NBCC. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
The first NBCC awards were announced and presented January 16, 1976.''The National Book Critics Circle Journal'' 2:1, Spring 1976
, NBCC. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
Six awards are presented annually to books published in the U.S. during the preceding calendar year, in six categories:

Center For Fiction First Novel Prize
__NOTOC__ The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize is an annual award presented by The Center for Fiction, a non-profit organization in New York City, for the best debut novel. From 2006 to 2011, it was called the John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize in honor of John Turner Sargent, Sr., and, from 2011 to 2014, the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, named after Center for Fiction board member Nancy Dunnan and her journalist father Ray W. Flaherty. Publishers nominate English-language works by first-time United States novelists.
''
Poets & Writers Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers ...
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Kirkus Prize
The Kirkus Prize is an American literary award conferred by the book review magazine ''Kirkus Reviews''. Established in 2014, the Kirkus Prize bestows annually. Three authors are awarded each, divided into three categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Young Readers' Literature. It has been described as one of the most lucrative prizes in literature. Eligibility and selection Books reviewed by ''Kirkus Reviews'' that have received the Kirkus Star are automatically eligible for the Kirkus Prize and are selected for nomination. The eligibility dates of publication for books is typically between November 1 of the previous year and October 31 of the current year, with few exceptions. Self-published books that have earned the Kirkus Star are eligible for the Kirkus Prize. However, self-published books are not eligible based on their date of publication but rather the date of publication of their online review by ''Kirkus Reviews''. All books must first be reviewed by ''Kirkus Reviews'' ...
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Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers' literature. ''Kirkus Reviews'', published on the first and 15th of each month; previews books before their publication. ''Kirkus'' reviews over 10,000 titles per year. History Virginia Kirkus was hired by Harper & Brothers to establish a children's book department in 1926. The department was eliminated as an economic measure in 1932 (for about a year), so Kirkus left and soon established her own book review service. Initially, she arranged to get galley proofs of "20 or so" books in advance of their publication; almost 80 years later, the service was receiving hundreds of books weekly and reviewing about 100. Initially titled ''Bulletin'' by Kirkus' Bookshop Service from 1933 to 1954, the title was ...
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Angela Flournoy
Angela Flournoy is an American writer. Her debut novel '' The Turner House'' (2015) won the First Novelist Award and was shortlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction, shortlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and named a ''New York Times'' Notable Book of 2015. She was also listed on the National Book Awards' 5 under 35 list, nominated by her former teacher ZZ Packer. Early life and education Flournoy was raised in Southern California. Her mother was from Los Angeles and father from Detroit. Flournoy attended the Iowa Writer's Workshop and the University of Southern California. She started developing her first novel, '' The Turner House'' while attending the Iowa Workshop, where she frequently traveled to Detroit to visit her father's family. Career After graduating, Flournoy taught writing for the University of Iowa, Trinity Washington University, and the DC Public Library. She published ''The Turner House ...
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