Leela Motley becomes youngest author to be on Booker Prize list

Booker Prize List: Born in Oakland, California, Leila Motley, just 20 years old, is the youngest writer ever to be among the contenders for the 2022 Booker Prize. At present, Leela’s novel ‘Nightcrawling’, which has got a place in the list of best novel, has attracted everyone’s attention in world literature. The novel follows the same vicious cycle as a plot of what kind of harassment black people and untouchable sex workers have to face in the hope of justice within the American police system.

Leila Motley’s first novel

One of the most powerful women in the world, ‘Nightcrawling’ is Leila Motley’s first novel, included in famous TV anchor and producer Oprah Winfrey’s ‘Oprah’s Book Club’. The novel takes readers into the world of 17-year-old Kiara Johnson living in Auckland, where the joys, hopes and fears of a young community of black society create a different world. In the criminal justice system designed to protect black people, how Kiara becomes a victim of sexual violence of the police, how her own family becomes a victim of this system, this is the plot of ‘Nightcrawling’ .

Plot of the novel

The struggle for survival turns Kiara into a child sex worker, but despite this, she raises a 9-year-old destitute child in her neighborhood who has been abandoned by her mother. Kiara stands firm throughout this struggle and refuses to succumb to the system’s oppression. And this is the beauty of this ‘Nightcrawling’, which Leela has composed in a different style. In the author’s commentary, Leela Motley writes about how a note found after the suicide of a police officer in Auckland exposed the sexual abuse scandal that was brewing within the police system and became the plot of her novel. It was the sensitive eyes of Leela, who saw and understood the unseen oppression, pain of the black-black teenager behind the scenes of this scandal.

Leela’s father is also a writer

Leila was chosen to be Auckland’s young poetess at the age of just 16 and had begun writing ‘Nightcrawling’ before her 17th birthday. She had almost finished scripting this novel by the time she passed high school. ‘Nightcrawling’ may be her first published novel, but she has already written two novels at the age of 14-15. Leela Motley has been influenced by her father as well as Nobel laureates Toni Morrison, Tony Cade Bambara, Jacqueline Woodson and Jessamyn Ward, and is currently working on her first poetry collection. Leela belongs to a literary and creative family where her father is a well-known play writer. Leela has watched her father write ever since she opened her eyes and this inspired her to pursue her artistic dream.

Youngest author John McGregor in 2002

Prior to Leela, British novelist John McGregor made it to Booker’s list as the youngest author in 2002. At that time his first novel ‘If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things’ was included in this list. However, the title of the youngest author to ever receive the Booker Prize goes to New Zealand’s Eleanor Catone, who won the £50,000 prize in 2013 for her novel The Luminaries. This time the names of litterateurs included in the list of Booker Prizes were announced on 26 July 2022 and the competitive list will be revealed on 6 September. After this, the name of the Booker Prize winner will be announced on 17 October at the Round House in London.

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