Raven Leilani's work has been published in <i>Granta</i>, <i>McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern</i>, <i>Narrative</i>, <i>Columbia Journal</i>, <i>Conjunctions,</i> <i>The Cut</i>, and <i>New England Review</i>, among other publications. She won <i>Narrative</i>’s Ninth Annual Poetry Contest and the Matt Clark Editor’s Choice Prize, as well as short fiction prizes from <i>Bat City Review</i> and <i>Blue Earth Review</i>. Leilani received her MFA from NYU and is currently the Axinn Foundation Writer in Residence there. <i>Luster </i>is her first novel.