Publications
Young moms are getting a rebrand on social media – if they’re rich. The Globe and Mail, June 2025.
Leila Mottley Wonders If You Can Truly Write a Place You’ve Never Been. Literary Hub, June 2025.
Leila Mottley on Looking Ahead While Looking Back. Harper’s Bazaar, April 2025.
Read Your Way Through The Bay Area. The New York Times, March 2024.
Shelf Life. Elle, April 2024.
Sea to Sea (short fiction). Marie Claire, March 2024.
For Author Leila Mottley, A Changing Oakland Will Always Be Home. Condé Nast Traveler, May 2022.
Juneteenth Babies (short story). Oprah Daily, June 2021.
Love Poem to Oakland (poem). Chapter 510/Youth Radio, November 2018.
Fire Season (poem). The New York Times, October 2020.
When I Write It (documentary). Tribeca Film Festival, April 2020.
Selected Press
A young novelist takes on misconceptions about teen moms in ‘The Girls Who Grew Big.’ NPR Fresh Air, July 2025.
How Oakland author Leila Mottley found sanctuary in poetry as way to ‘connect deeply’. San Francisco Chronicle, April 2024.
Novelist Leila Mottley on Becoming a Literary Star at the Age of 21. Harper’s Bazaar, August 2023.
In This Sex-Trafficking Ring, the Johns Are the Oakland Police. The New York Times Book Review, June 2022.
Writers to Watch This Summer. The New York Times, May 2022.
A 17-Year-Old Processes Police Sexual Violence in One of the Summer’s Most Anticipated Novels. Mother Jones, June 2022.
Oakland teen Leila Mottley making major splash with searing debut novel ‘Nightcrawling’. San Francisco Chronicle, June 2022.
‘I have a lot of time’: Oakland poet-novelist phenom Leila Mottley, 19, has just begun. The LA Times, June 2022.
‘Nightcrawling’ follows a woman who turns to sex work to support her family. NPR, June 2022.
Teenager Leila Mottley on writing her debut novel: ‘I’ve always done things at a warp speed’. The Guardian, June 2022.
Television
Writing Stories on Black Girlhood. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, July 2022.
Leila Mottley Released Her First Book Nightcrawling at 19 Years Old. Late Night with Seth Meyers, June 2022.
Leila Mottley's debut book "Nightcrawling" is next selection for Oprah's Book Club. CBS Mornings, June 2022.
Oakland Writers Ayodele Nzinga and Leila Mottley. KQED, October 2022.