Template:Short description Template:Infobox writer
Francesca Lia Block (born December 3, 1962) is an American writer of adult and young-adult literature. She wrote the Weetzie Bat series,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which she began while a student at UC Berkeley.
Early life and educationEdit
Block was born in Los Angeles in 1962. Her mother was a poet and her father was the screenwriter and painter Irving Block.<ref name=Rogers>Template:Cite news</ref> She attended North Hollywood High School<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and the University of California, Berkeley,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and later studied for her MFA from the University of California at Riverside.<ref name=Romanoff>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
CareerEdit
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.<ref name=Romanoff />
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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2014, Block was named Writer-in-Residence at Pasadena City College.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Block is a member of the Authors Guild, Authors League of America, and the Writers Guild of America.
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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Block is known for her use of imagery, especially in describing the city of Los Angeles.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> One New York Times Book Review critic said, "Block writes about the real Los Angeles better than anyone since Raymond Chandler."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Writing style and genresEdit
Block sees her books as being in the tradition of magical realism, and she has said that she was heavily influenced by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> as well as Emily Dickinson.<ref name=Rogers /> She has been compared to S.E. Hinton because of themes like sex, death, drugs, and broken homes that occur in her works.<ref name=Rogers /> Many of her books have been categorized as young adult fiction, but Block has also written adult fiction, non-fiction, short stories, and poetry.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Personal lifeEdit
Block has a son and a daughter.<ref name=Rogers /><ref name=Romanoff /> She lives in Los Angeles.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Awards and nominationsEdit
- 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 (ALA) Margaret A. Edwards Award for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature" for the first five Weetzie Bat books.<ref name="edwards" />
- 2009: Weetzie Bat won the Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association as the best English-language children's book that did not win a major award when it was originally published.<ref name="phoenix" />
BibliographyEdit
Weetzie Bat, or Dangerous Angels series
|
Omnibus editions<ref name=isfdb/>
|
- 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 (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
Template:Div col endHouse Of Hearts (Rare Bird Books, 2022)
Collections
|
Non-fiction and other
|
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
Template:Library resources box
- Template:Official website
- Template:Trim Template:PAGENAMEBASE at the Internet Speculative Fiction DatabaseTemplate:EditAtWikidata
- [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 6907562
| name/{{#if:{{#invoke:ustring|match|1=6907562|2=^nm}}
| Template:Trim/
| nm6907562/
}}
| {{#if: {{#property:P345}}
| name/Template:First word/
| find?q=%7B%7B%23if%3A+%0A++++++%7C+%7B%7B%7Bname%7D%7D%7D%0A++++++%7C+%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D%0A++++++%7D%7D&s=nm
}}
}}{{#if: 6907562 {{#property:P345}} | {{#switch:
| award | awards = awards Awards for | biography | bio = bio Biography for
}}}} {{#if:
| {{{name}}}
| Template:PAGENAMEBASE
}}] at IMDb{{#if: 6907562{{#property:P345}}
| Template:EditAtWikidata
| Template:Main other
}}{{#switch:{{#invoke:string2|matchAny|^nm.........|^nm.......|nm|.........|source=6907562|plain=false}}
| 1 | 3 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning | 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning
}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb name with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | id | name | section }}
- Weetzie Bat Screenplay Reading
- Save Francesca's Faerie Cottage
- Francesca Lia Block at Library of Congress Authorities — with 38 catalog records