Francesca Lia Block (born December 3, 1962) is an American writer of adult and young-adult literature. She wrote the '' Weetzie Bat'' series, which she began while a student at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

Early life and education

Block was born in Los Angeles in 1962. Her mother was a poet and her father was the screenwriter and painter Irving Block. She attended

North Hollywood High School North Hollywood High School (NHHS) is a public high school in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is in the San Fernando Valley and enrolls approximately 2,500 students. Several neighborhoods, including m ...

and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, and later studied for her MFA from the

University of California at Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in ...

Career

Block writes both novels and 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 has published over 40 books. Block did not originally start out with an editor, but was published by using her connections. She attributed her success partly to publishers being interested in shorter books. In 2014, Block was named Writer-in-Residence at

Pasadena City College Pasadena City College (PCC) is a Public college, public community college in Pasadena, California. It was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. History Pasadena City College was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. It originally o ...

. Block is a member of the

Authors Guild The Authors Guild is the United States' oldest and largest professional organization for writers and provides advocacy on issues of free expression and copyright protection. Since its founding in 1912 as the Authors League of America, it has coun ...

, Authors League of America, and the

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is the name of two American labor unions representing writers in film, television, radio, and online media: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is headquartered in New York City and is affiliated wit ...

. In 2018, it was confirmed that ''Weetzie Bat'' would be produced as a feature film, with Justin Kelly attached as director. Block wrote the screenplay for the film. Block is known for her use of imagery, especially in describing the city of Los Angeles. One ''

New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'' critic said, "Block writes about the real Los Angeles better than anyone since

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

Writing style and genres

Block sees her books as being in the tradition of

magical realism Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical rea ...

, and she has said that she was heavily influenced by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende, as well as

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...

. She has been compared to S.E. Hinton because of themes like sex, death, drugs, and broken homes that occur in her works. Many of her books have been categorized as young adult fiction, but Block has also written adult fiction, non-fiction, short stories, and poetry.

Personal life

Block has a son and a daughter. She lives in Los Angeles.

Awards and nominations

* 1996: ''Baby Be-Bop'' was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award for Young Adult/Children's Book * 2001: ''Dangerous Angels'' was inducted into the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Hall of Fame * 2005:

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

(ALA) Margaret A. Edwards Award for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature" for the first five Weetzie Bat books. * 2009: ''Weetzie Bat'' won the

Phoenix Award The Phoenix Award annually recognizes one English-language children's book published twenty years earlier that did not then win a major literary award. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix that is reborn from its own ashes, signifying the boo ...

from the

Children's Literature Association The Children's Literature Association (ChLA) is a non-profit association, based in the United States, of scholars, critics, professors, students, librarians, teachers, and institutions dedicated to studying children's literature.Margaret W. Denman ...

as the best English-language children's book that did not win a major award when it was originally published.

Bibliography

;Standalone novels *''Ecstasia'' (1993) *''The Hanged Man'' (1994) *''Primavera'' (1994) *''I Was A Teenage Fairy'' (1998) *''Violet and Claire'' (1999) *''The Rose and the Beast'' (2000) *''

Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

'' (2001) *'' Wasteland'' (2003) *''Ruby'' (2006) *''Psyche In A Dress'' (2006) *''Blood Roses'' (2008) *''Quakeland'' (2008) *''The Waters and the Wild'' (2009) *''Pretty Dead'' (2009) *''The Frenzy'' (2010) *''House of Dolls'' (2010) *''The Elementals'' (St. Martin's Press, 2013) *''Love in the Time of Global Warming'' (2013) *''Teen Spirit'' (2014) *''The Island of Excess Love'' (2014) *''Beyond the Pale Motel'' (2014) *''My Miserable Life'' (2016), as F.L. Block *''Lost Children'' (2021), audiobook ''House Of Hearts'' (Rare Bird Books, 2022)

References

External links

* * *
Weetzie Bat Screenplay ReadingFrancesca Lia Block
at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Authorities — with 38 catalog records {{DEFAULTSORT:Block, Francesca Lia 1962 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American children's writers American fantasy writers American women short story writers American women novelists Margaret A. Edwards Award winners Writers from Los Angeles American women children's writers American women science fiction and fantasy writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American women writers of young adult literature American writers of young adult literature 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers