29 October 2018
Leslye Penelope says she found refuge in writing as a child: "Writing was always my way to make sense of the world. I was an extremely shy child, but I had this creative outlet where I could really run wild." The Maryland-based author's earliest influences included the classic work of Frances Hodgson Burnett and Jane Austen. She credits authors such as Octavia Butler, Virginia Hamilton, and Gloria Naylor with teaching her "about magical realism and infusing a sense of magic into a story."
