Photo Credit: Alisha Barze
Leila Renee is a writer and professor. Her debut novel Soft Spots will release from Amistad Books on August 4th, 2026. Preorder here :)
Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Electric Literature, The Offing, Split Lip, Almine Rech, Best Microfiction, and more.
“Soft Spots will make wonder if you’ve ever really read a book. It's the best of John Hughes meets Morrison on the way to Nafissa Thompson-Spires apartment. Absolutely stunning and absolutely engrossing work by a fictive wunderkind. Leila Renee is here. Readers of earth, one writer has been listening to what we want.” — Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
Advanced Praise for Soft Spots:
A taut, funny, immensely charming debut by one of those rare writers who can be acerbic and loving-hearted in the same paragraph. Leila Renee is a richly talented observer of human nature, a casual, riveting stylist, and a cause for hope in these strange times. - George Saunders, Author of Vigil and Lincoln in the Bardo
“Leila Renee's immersive, inventive debut novel Soft Spots is dark but also very funny, sad but also life-affirming, scathing but also compassionate. Her characters are unfailingly complex and convincing. Soft Spots is a moving book, and Leila Renee is a fiercely intelligent, urgent, and promising new voice.” - Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward and Eat the Document.
Soft Spots will make wonder if you’ve ever really read a book. It's the best of John Hughes meets Morrison on the way to Nafissa Thompson-Spires apartment. Absolutely stunning and absolutely engrossing work by a fictive wunderkind. Leila Renee is here. Readers of earth, one writer has been listening to what we want. - Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
With far too few Awkward Black Girls in literature, Leila Renee has given us the gift of Robin, one of the most original, resonant characters I've read in a long time. As Robin missteps her way through the world, I cringed, held my breath, laughed, and said, "Babygirl, noooo" an inordinate amount of times. From the first page to the last, you can't help but root for this beautiful, wounded soul to survive. And to win. Soft Spots is an irresistible, astonishing, unforgettable debut! - Deesha Philyaw, author of the National Book Award Finalist, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
An astonishing debut—at once riveting, wise, and transformative. I was so taken with Robin I carried her struggles like they were my own. This was one of those books I couldn’t bear to finish, and yet I also couldn’t put it down until I reached the end, which resolved with awe-inspiring grace. I would read anything Leila Renee wrote. - Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of On the Rooftop, a Reese’s Book Club pick