Overview
Over 10 years as an editor at Penguin Random House, I acquired and edited award-winning and bestselling fiction and nonfiction books for readers of all ages. My authors included award-winning actors Viola Davis and Bob Balaban; New York Times bestselling authors Gayle Forman, Max Brallier, and Ame Dyckman; National Book Award Finalist Elizabeth Partridge; MacArthur Fellow Xu Bing; and many more. I also managed classic children’s publishing properties including Corduroy, Angelina Ballerina, Ferdinand, The Snowy Day, and others.
I'm the author of eight critically acclaimed novels for children and young adults, including This Song Will Save Your Life and Once Was a Time. My books have been optioned for stage and screen, selected for state award lists, translated into a dozen languages, and received many starred reviews.
I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from the University of Chicago. In 2018 I left Penguin and NYC for life in Austin, Texas, where I now write and consult about books and publishing.
WHAT MY AUTHORS AND COLLEAGUES SAY:
"Leila is a fantastic editor. She’s great with the biggest big picture stuff and she’s great with the tiniest details. Her creative vision has been invaluable. And, maybe most importantly, Leila is kind, patient, and always enjoyable to work with."--Max Brallier, New York Times bestselling author
"Working with Leila was a dream. She understands the writing process from both a writer’s and an editor’s perspective, and that really comes through in her work. She’s intuitive, smart, insightful, and always gave guidance that was clear, actionable, and deeply grounded from a character and story perspective. Leila was also delightful to work with on a personal level—generous, funny, a great (and prompt!) communicator, and the consummate professional."--Danielle Younge-Ullman, author
"Leila is a rare combination of creative and pragmatic, artistic and business-oriented. She is an all-around joy to work with, and a true collaborator. Working with her is as productive as it is fun. Any author trying to improve their writing would be lucky to have Leila’s thoughts on their work. Funny, gregarious, well-read, smart, and professional, Leila is a credit to the book industry."--Joy Peskin, editorial director at Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers
"Leila is that rare type of writer: a mind-reader. Her ability to see what a book needs on both the macro and the micro level is why she excels on both sides of publishing. Incredibly versatile in the types of stories she contains, she is among the best natural voices in children’s fiction working today. She is also one of the funniest people I’ve ever worked with.”--Taylor Norman, editor at Chronicle Books
"My favorite thing about working with Leila is that she was always interested in helping me to make my books the way I wanted to make them. She would ask big questions and push and prod when I needed her to—and always in service to making something smart, artful, and honest. I consider myself lucky to have worked with her."--Greg Pizzoli, Geisel Award-winning author and illustrator
Services
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Languages
Work experience
BookPeople
I work part-time as a children's bookseller at BookPeople, Texas's largest independent bookstore.
Macmillan, Chronicle, Simon & Schuster, Abrams, etc.
I am the author of many critically-acclaimed original books for children and teens. Additionally, I have written or ghost-written installments in a number of established intellectual properties. Please inquire for more information.
BOOKS I HAVE WRITTEN:
• The Campaign, 2020, Abrams
• If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, 2018, Macmillan
• Once Was a Time, 2016, Chronicle Books
• Tonight the Streets Are Ours, 2015, Macmillan
• This Song Will Save Your Life, 2013, Macmillan
• Past Perfect, 2011, Simon and Schuster
• Mostly Good Girls, 2010, Simon and Schuster
• Editor of the humor anthology We Made Uranium!: And Other True Stories from the University of
Chicago’s Extraordinary Scavenger Hunt, 2019, University of Chicago Press.
Penguin Random House
I started at Viking Children's Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, as an editorial assistant in 2008. Over the course of the next ten years, I held the roles of assistant editor, associate editor, editor, and associate publishing manager. I acquired, edited, and conceptualized dozens of bestselling, critically acclaimed, and award-winning fiction and nonfiction for children and teens. You can see some (though by no means all of them!) in my portfolio, below.
Penguin Random House
I worked in Penguin Young Readers Group's School & Library Marketing department, first as an assistant and then as an advertising coordinator. I created promotional materials, wrote ad copy, and helped manage the company's presence at industry trade shows.
Portfolio
