Francesca Lia Block (born December 3, 1962) is an American writer of adult and young-adult literature. She is known for the '' Weetzie Bat'' series, which she began while a student at

UC 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 uni ...

Early life

Block was born in Los Angeles to a poet and a painter. She attended

Career

Block writes both novels and poetry. Her first two books, ''Moon Harvest'' (1978) and ''Season of Green'' (1979), were small-press illustrated poetry collections, now out of print. Since then, she has released several standalone collections of poetry, as well as incorporating poetry and lyrics into many of her novels. Block did not originally start out with an editor, but was published by using her connections. She attributed her success partly to publishers being interested in shorter books. In 2014, Block was named Writer-in-Residence at Pasadena City College. Block is a member of the Authors Guild, Authors League of America, and the

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO * The Writers Gu ...

. Block's work has been translated into several different languages, including French, Italian, German, and Japanese, and is published around the world. In 2018, it was confirmed that ''Weetzie Bat'' would be produced as a feature film, with Justin Kelly attached as director. Block wrote the screenplay for the film. Block is known for her use of imagery, especially in describing the city of Los Angeles. One '' New York Times Book Review'' critic said, "Block writes about the real Los Angeles better than anyone since Raymond Chandler."

Personal life

Block has a son and a daughter.

Awards and nominations

* 1996: ''Baby Be-Bop'' was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award for Young Adult/Children's Book * 2001: ''Dangerous Angels'' was inducted into the

Gaylactic Spectrum Awards The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards are given to works of science fiction, fantasy and horror that explore LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) topics in a positive way. Established in 1998, the awards were initially presented by the Gaylacti ...

Hall of Fame * 2005:

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

(ALA)

Margaret A. Edwards Award The Margaret A. Edwards Award is an American Library Association (ALA) literary award that annually recognizes an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". It is named afte ...

for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature" for the first five Weetzie Bat books. * 2009: ''Weetzie Bat'' won the

Phoenix Award The Phoenix Award annually recognizes one English-language children's book published twenty years earlier that did not then win a major literary award. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix that is reborn from its own ashes, signifying the ...

from the

Children's Literature Association The Children's Literature Association (ChLA) is a non-profit association, based in the United States, of scholars, critics, professors, students, librarians, teachers, and institutions dedicated to studying children's literature.Margaret W. Denman- ...

as the best English-language children's book that did not win a major award when it was originally published.

Bibliography

;Standalone novels *''Ecstasia'' (1993) *''The Hanged Man'' (1994) *''Primavera'' (1994) *''I Was A Teenage Fairy'' (1998) *''Violet and Claire'' (1999) *''The Rose and the Beast'' (2000) *''

Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

'' (2001) *''

Wasteland Wasteland or waste land may refer to: * Desert or barren area * an uncultivated area of land, whether wooded or not, whether common land or not Art, entertainment, and media Comics * ''Wasteland'' (DC Comics), 1987–1989 anthology-style horror/ ...

'' (2003) *''Ruby'' (2006) *''Psyche In A Dress'' (2006) *''Blood Roses'' (2008) *''Quakeland'' (2008) *''The Waters and the Wild'' (2009) *''Pretty Dead'' (2009) *''The Frenzy'' (2010) *''House of Dolls'' (2010) *''The Elementals'' (St. Martin's Press, 2013) *''Love in the Time of Global Warming'' (2013) *''Teen Spirit'' (2014) *''The Island of Excess Love'' (2014) *''Beyond the Pale Motel'' (2014) *''My Miserable Life'' (2016), as F.L. Block *''Lost Children'' (2021), audiobook

References

External links

* * *
Weetzie Bat Screenplay ReadingFrancesca Lia Block
at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

Authorities — with 38 catalog records {{DEFAULTSORT:Block, Francesca Lia 1962 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American children's writers American fantasy writers American women short story writers American women novelists Margaret A. Edwards Award winners Writers from Los Angeles American women children's writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Women writers of young adult literature 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers