Francesca Lia Block
| Francesca Lia Block | |
|---|---|
Francesca Lia Block
|
|
| Born |
December 3, 1962 Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | English |
| Period | 1989–present |
| Notable awards |
Margaret Edwards Award 2005 |
Francesca Lia Block (born December 3, 1962) is an American writer of adult and young-adult literature: fiction, short stories, screenplays and poetry. She is known best for the Weetzie Bat series — named after its first installment and her first novel, which she wrote while a UC Berkeley student, Weetzie Bat (HarperColins, 1989). She 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." She won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2005 for her contribution in writing for teens.
Block was born in Los Angeles to a poet and a painter, their creativity an obvious influence on her writing. Another influence was her childhood love of Greek mythology and fairy tales. She left her birth city only to attend the UC Berkeley. She has often professed her love of Los Angeles, calling it a "jasmine-scented, jacaranda-purple, neon sparked city," which she has nicknamed in her books "Shangri-LA." She currently lives in Los Angeles with her daughter, Jasmine Angelina (about whom she wrote her book Guarding the Moon), her son Samuel Alexander, and her two dogs: a springer spaniel named Vincent Van Go Go Boots and a beagle mix named Thumper.
While perhaps best known for her novels, Block is also a lifelong writer of 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.
She is currently developing an original show for MTV and writing the screenplay which will bring Weetzie Bat to the cinema. Block's work has been translated into several different languages, including French, Italian, German, and Japanese, and is published around the world.
Block is a member of the Authors Guild, Authors League of America, and the Writers Guild of America.
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