Winfrey picks Leila Mottley's 'Nightcrawling' for book club


NEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey has chosen 19-year-old Leila Mottley's “Nightcrawling,”

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debut novel about a young Black woman from East Oakland and her battles with poverty, racism and the police, for next book club pick.

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A spokesperson for Winfrey said Mottley is the youngest author ever selected for Oprah’s Book Club, founded in 1996.

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“It brings me great joy to introduce readers to new authors,

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and this young poet Leila Mottley wrote a soul-searching portrait of survival and hope,”

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Winfrey said in a statement Tuesday.

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Mottley, born and raised in Oakland, served as the city's youth poet laureate in 2018.

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Her book was published Tuesday and has been praised by James McBride and Tommy Orange among others.

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Kirkus Reviews called “Nightcrawling” a “lovely and poetic"

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