Aya de Leon (born 1967) is an American novelist and activist who teaches at the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. She first came to national attention as a

spoken-word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

artist in the underground poetry scene in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, and a

hip-hop theater Hip-hop theater is a form of theater that presents contemporary stories through the use of one or more of the four elements of hip-hop culture—b-boying, graffiti writing, MCing (rapping), and DJing. Other cultural markers of hip-hop such as spo ...

artist. de Leon is of Puerto Rican, African-American, and West Indian heritage, and much of her work explores issues of race, gender, socio-economic class, body, nation and the climate crisis.

Early life

De Leon was born in Los Angeles in 1967, she is the daughter of

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

and his first wife, Anna de Leon.

Career

De Leon attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where she received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

. After, she returned to the Bay Area and began to perform spoken word, she won a spot on the San Francisco Slam Team (they won the Western Region Poetry Slam in 2000). From 1998 to 2008 she toured extensively as an independent artist. In 2001, she began to develop the hip-hop theater show ''Thieves in the Temple: The Reclaiming of Hip Hop'', focused on fighting sexism and

consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the supp ...

in hip hop She began her college teaching career at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 2001. In 2006, she was chosen as the Director of

June Jordan June Millicent Jordan (July 9, 1936 – June 14, 2002) was an American poet, essayist, teacher, and activist. In her writing she explored issues of gender, race, immigration, and representation. Jordan was passionate about using Black English i ...

's Poetry for the People at UC Berkeley, where she currently teaches

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

and

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

. She earned her

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in fiction from

Antioch University Los Angeles Antioch University Los Angeles (AULA) is a campus of Antioch University in Culver City, California. Background Antioch College was founded in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Horace Mann, Antioch College’s first president's goal was to create an educati ...

. From 1995 to 2009, her work was published in various print journals and anthologies, including ''Essence Magazine''. In 2009, she stopped touring to start a family and transition to being a novelist. In 2013 she began to blog and to write for various online outlets, such as ''Harper's Bazaar'', ''xojane'', ''Bitch Magazine'', ''Ebony'', ''Racialicious'', ''Writers Digest'', ''Fusion'', ''Womans Day'', ''Movement Strategy Center'', and ''The Feminist Wire''. In 2014 she secured representation with

literary agent A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers, film producers, and film studios, and assists in sale and deal negotiation. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwrit ...

Jenni Ferrari Adler of Union Literary in NYC. In 2015, she sold her debut book, a feminist heist novel with a Latina Robin Hood protagonist in a two-book deal to

Kensington Books Kensington Publishing Corp. is an American, New York-based publishing house founded in 1974 by Walter Zacharius (1923–2011)Grimes, William"Walter Zacharius, Romance Publisher, Dies at 87,"''New York Times'' (MARCH 7, 2011). and Roberta Bender ...

in New York. Her first novel, ''Uptown Thief'', was published in 2016, the first of the "Justice Hustlers" series, which has been optioned for TV. Aya is working on the pilot."Books"
Aya de Leon website.

Books

*''puffy'', 2013 *''Uptown Thief'', 2016 *''The Boss'', 2017 *''The Accidental Mistress'', 2018 *''Side Chick Nation'', 2019 *''Equality Girls and the Purprle Reflecto-Ray'', 2020 (self-published) *''A Spy In The Struggle'', 2020 *''Queen of Urban Prophecy'', 2021 *''The Mystery Woman in Room Three, 2021 (serially published)'' *''Undercover Latina'', 2022

References

External links

Aya de Leon
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Leon, Aya de 1967 births Living people Harvard University alumni American women poets American women novelists University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Antioch University alumni Stanford University faculty 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers Novelists from Los Angeles