Innovative writer Francesca Lia Block (1962–) was born in Hollywood, California, where both her parents were artists. She grew up surrounded by books, with a passion for reading, and a head full of Greek mythology and legends.

“My father used to tell me bits of the Odyssey for my nighttime story. It was an incredibly rich upbringing.”

In 1989, Block published her first book, the groundbreaking Weetzie Bat, a young adult novel about life as a teenager in Los Angeles. In this, and throughout her books, Block celebrates the goddess found in each girl. Her characters are either on their way to discovering the goddess, or already knowing the goddess is there.

“Write what turns you on, what electrifies you,” she encouraged her fans, who revel in Block’s modern fairy tales of the curative powers of art and love.

Block described her passionate writing as “prose poems,” a place where she can open up to the world and express emotional truth. She has called her work “magic realist punk fairy tales” that explore the beauty, darkness, and healing power of love.

In Block’s colorful world, differences are welcomed and valued. The stories of magic and fairies may feel lighthearted on the surface, but Weetzie and her friends face the tough issues of homosexuality, drugs, interracial dating, and sex outside of marriage. Basically, Life 101.

With award-winning novels published internationally, Block writes with vivid detail and magic dust. She makes sure that the goddess always rises from within. “I try to see the dark and light in everything,” she explained. “This is my way of comforting myself when I am dealing with those emotions.”