Oakland’s Leila Mottley on Her Debut Collection of Poetry ‘woke up no light’

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In her new book of poems, “woke up no light” Leila Mottley writes: play dead / play docile / play along / stare a beast in its mouth and dare it to bite / this is the only way to know if / the country is still hungry. We talk to Leila Mottley, who was Oakland’s 2018 Youth Poet Laureate, about her poetry, coming of age in the nation’s gaze after the enormous success of her novel, “Nightcrawling,” and her hometown of Oakland. Guests: Leila Mottley, author, "woke up no light: poems" - Mottley was the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. She is also the author of "Nightcrawling," a New York Times bestseller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:46.4	Music From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Ariana Prail in for Alexis Madrigal.
0:51.7	At just 19 years old, Layla Motley burst on the literary scene in 2022 with her
0:57.2	New York Times bestselling novel Nightcrawling. She's back with a new book of poems, meditating on
1:03.3	themes of black girlhood and womanhood, reparations, desire, and more. It's titled, Woke Up, No Light.
1:10.7	We talked to Layla Motley, who was Oakland's
1:12.9	Youth Poet Laureate in 2018 about her poetry, coming of age in the nation's gaze after the
1:18.0	enormous success of night crawling, and her deep love for her hometown of Oakland. That's next
1:23.8	after this news.
1:38.0	Welcome to Form. I'm Ariana Prail in for Alexis Madrigal.
1:41.2	Writer Leila Motley is just 21 years old and already has a New York Times best
1:46.1	selling book under her belt. Her debut novel, Nightcrawling was also an Oprah book club pick.
	...

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