Aya de León

Aya de Leon teaches creative writing at UC Berkeley. Kensington Books publishes her Justice Hustlers feminist heist novels, UPTOWN THIEF (2016), THE BOSS (2017), THE ACCIDENTAL MISTRESS (2018), and in 2019 SIDE CHICK NATION the first novel to be published about the hurricane in Puerto Rico. She has received acclaim in the Washington Post, Village Voice, SF Chronicle, and The Establishment. A graduate of Harvard College, with an MFA from Antioch University, Aya has been an artist in residence at Stanford University, a Cave Canem poetry fellow, and a slam poetry champion. She publicly married herself in the 90s, and from 1995 to 2012 hosted an annual Valentine’s Day show that focused on self-love. Her work has also appeared in Ebony, Essence, Guernica, Writers Digest, Huffington Post, Catapult, The Root, The Toast, VICE, Ploughshares, Bitch Magazine, on Def Poetry, and she’s an advice columnist for Mutha Magazine.

In 2020, Kensington will publish her first spy novel about FBI infiltration of an African American political organization. She is currently at work on a YA spy girl series featuring African American and Latina teens called GOING DARK, as well as a picture book to help talk to children about racism. She blogs and tweets about race, gender, and culture at @AyadeLeon and ayadeleon.com.