Leila Renee received her MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. She won the 2021 Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction and the 2022 Shirley Jackson Prize. Leila has work in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Transition Magazine, Columbia Journal, Electric Literature, The Offing, Split Lip, Taymour Grahne Projects, Almine Rech, and Galerie Mighela Shama. Her work has been included in Best Microfiction 2023 and nominated for Best of the Net. Her debut novel Soft Spots is out from Amistad Books in 2026.