Lamar Giles

Giles grew up next to an army base{{Cite web|url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/01/07/author-interview-lamar-giles|title=Author Interview with Lamar Giles|website=The New York Public Library|access-date=2019-04-04|archive-date=2019-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404044557/https://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/01/07/author-interview-lamar-giles|url-status=live}} in Hopewell, Virginia.{{Cite web|url=https://thebookingbiz.com/client/lamar-giles/|title=Lamar Giles|website=The Booking Biz|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-04|archive-date=2019-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404035710/https://thebookingbiz.com/client/lamar-giles/|url-status=live}} He wrote his first novel at 14{{Cite web|url=https://www.epicreads.com/blog/how-i-became-a-writer-by-lamar-giles/|title=How I Became A Writer by Lamar Giles {{!}} Epic Reads Blog|date=2014-01-21|website=Epic Reads|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-04|archive-date=2019-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404035647/https://www.epicreads.com/blog/how-i-became-a-writer-by-lamar-giles/|url-status=live}} and graduated from Hopewell High School in 1997. Giles has a B.S. in communications with a Minor in English from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. He started wanting to become a published writer after reading Stephen King's On Writing in college,{{Cite web|url=https://thebookingbiz.com/2018/06/interview-lamar-giles-on-coffee-videogames-and-the-important-stuff/|title=Interview: Lamar Giles on Coffee, Videogames, and "The Important Stuff"|date=2018-06-01|website=The Booking Biz|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-04|archive-date=2019-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404035642/https://thebookingbiz.com/2018/06/interview-lamar-giles-on-coffee-videogames-and-the-important-stuff/|url-status=live}} and sold his first short story at age 21. He also independently published novels and short stories as L.R. Giles. Giles worked as a real estate agent for a while before being awarded a fellowship from the Virginia Commission of the Arts in 2006.{{cite web |url=http://www.arts.virginia.gov/grants/pdf/Fellowship_Announce_06_07.pdf |title=2006-2007 Fellowship Recipients - The Virginia Commission for the Arts |publisher=The Virginia Commission for the Arts |access-date=4 April 2019 |archive-date=3 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203200957/http://www.arts.virginia.gov/grants/pdf/Fellowship_Announce_06_07.pdf |url-status=dead }} He sold what would become his first novel, Fake ID, at 31.{{Cite web|url=https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/2017/02/author-interview-lamar-giles/|title=Author Interview: Lamar Giles on Writing Mysteries, Diversity & His Writing Journey|date=2017-02-23|website=Cynthia Leitich Smith|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-04|archive-date=2019-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404041148/https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/2017/02/author-interview-lamar-giles/|url-status=live}}

Giles is a founding member of the non-profit We Need Diverse Books, their former VP of Communications,{{Cite web|url=http://yareview.net/2015/05/5-questions-for-lamar-giles/|title=5 Questions for Lamar Giles {{!}} YARN|access-date=2019-04-04|archive-date=2019-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404050010/http://yareview.net/2015/05/5-questions-for-lamar-giles/|url-status=live}} and was on their 2017 advisory board.{{Cite web|url=https://diversebooks.org/about-wndb/|title=About WNDB|website=diversebooks.org|date=28 April 2017|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-29|archive-date=2018-11-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181125182454/https://diversebooks.org/about-wndb/|url-status=live}} Giles was a judge for the 2018 National Book Awards{{Cite news|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2018/#.WsDCPtPwbUI|title=National Book Foundation - 2018 National Book Awards|work=National Book Foundation|access-date=2018-11-29|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-11-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129100505/https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2018/#.WsDCPtPwbUI|url-status=live}} and is a faculty member in the Spalding University MFA program.{{Cite web|url=https://www.spalding.edu/school-creative-professional-writing/meet-faculty-directors/lamar-giles/|title=Lamar Giles|website=Spalding University|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-04|archive-date=2019-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404035645/https://www.spalding.edu/school-creative-professional-writing/meet-faculty-directors/lamar-giles/|url-status=live}}

He lives with his wife in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Giles' debut young adult novel, Fake ID, was published by HarperCollins in 2014. Fake ID is a thriller following an African-American teen moving to a new town under a fake identity because of his father's crimes and who gets entangled in solving the mysterious murder of his best friend.{{Cite news|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-212184-4|title=Children's Book Review: Fake ID by Lamar Giles. HarperCollins/Amistad, $17.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-212184-4|work=PublishersWeekly.com|access-date=2018-11-29|language=en|archive-date=2018-11-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129100341/https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-212184-4|url-status=live}} Giles cites Gerald Shur's non-fiction works and Casanegra by Steve Barnes as some of his inspirations for the novel.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/01/07/author-interview-lamar-giles|title=Author Interview with Lamar Giles|website=The New York Public Library|access-date=2018-11-29|archive-date=2018-11-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129100433/https://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/01/07/author-interview-lamar-giles|url-status=live}}

His next novel, Endangered, about a vigilante teen whose undercover identity gets revealed to the world, was published by Harper Teen in 2015.{{Cite journal|last=Bush|first=Elizabeth|date=2015-05-19|title=Endangered by Lamar Giles (review)|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/581953|journal=Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books|language=en|volume=68|issue=10|pages=490|doi=10.1353/bcc.2015.0468|s2cid=141729501|issn=1558-6766|access-date=2019-04-04|archive-date=2019-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404035645/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/581953|url-status=live}}

Giles is the editor of the anthology Fresh Ink, a collection of stories by authors Nicola Yoon, Malinda Lo, Melissa de la Cruz, Sara Farizan, Eric Gansworth, Walter Dean Myers, Daniel José Older, Thien Pham, Jason Reynolds, Gene Luen Yang, Sharon G. Flake, Schuyler Bailar, and Aminah Mae Safi about marginalized experiences. It was published by Crown in 2018.{{Cite news|url=https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=fresh-ink-anthology-lamar-giles-slj-review|title=Fresh Ink: An Anthology by Lamar Giles {{!}} SLJ Review|work=School Library Journal|access-date=2018-11-29|archive-date=2018-11-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129100252/https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=fresh-ink-anthology-lamar-giles-slj-review|url-status=live}}

• Fake ID (HarperCollins, 2014)
• Endangered (HarperTeen, 2015)
• Overturned (Scholastic, 2017)
• Spin (Scholastic, 2019)
• The Last Last-Day-of-Summer (Versify/HMH, 2019)
• Not So Pure and Simple (HarperTeen, 2020)
• The Last Mirror on the Left (Versify/HMH, 2020)
• The Last Chance for Logan County (Versify/HMH, 2021)
• The Getaway (Scholastic, 2022)
• Star Wars: Sanctuary (Penguin Random House, 2025)

• "The Historian, the Garrison, and the Cantankerous Cat Woman" in Three Sides of a Heart: Stories About Love Triangles, edited by Natalie C. Parker (HarperTeen, 2018)
• "Black. Nerd. Problems." in Black Enough, edited by Ibi Zoboi (Balzer + Bray, 2019)
• "The Oval Filter" in His Hideous Heart: 13 of Edgar Allan Poe's Most Unsettling Tales Reimagined, edited by Dahlia Adler (Flatiron Books, 2019)
• "Ellison's CORNucopia: A Logan County Story" in The Hero Next Door, edited by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich (Crown, 2019)
• "Surprise. Party." in Super Puzzletastic Mysteries, Edited by Chris Grabenstein (HarperCollins, 2020)
• "The Storms and Sunshine of My Life" in RECOGNIZE! An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life, edited by Wade Hudson & Cheryl Willis Hudson (Crown, 2021)
• “There’s Going to be a Fight in the Cafeteria on Friday and You Better Not Bring Batman” in Black Boy Joy, edited by Kwame Mbalia (Delacorte Press, 2021)
• "Love to Hate" in GENERATION WONDER: The New Age of Heroes edited by Barry Lyga, Illustrated by Colleen Doran (Amulet Books, 2022)

• Fresh Ink (Crown, 2018)

• in Dark Dreams: A Collection of Horror and Suspense by Black Writers, edited by Brandon Massey (Dafina, 2004)
• in Voices from the Other Side, edited by Brandon Massey (Dafina, 2004)
• in Whispers in the Night, edited by Brandon Massey (Dafina, 2007)
• "Live Again" (2010)
• "The Darkness Kept" (2010)
• "The Track" (2011)
• "The Shadow Gallery" (2011)
• "Lover's Spat" (2011)
• "Doc Damage's Very Bad Day" (2011)
• "Power and Purpose" (2011)
• "When Scary People Know Your Name" (2012)

• The Serpent and the Stallion, co-authored with Becky Rodgers Boyette (2011)

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Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:American male novelists

Category:African-American novelists

Category:1979 births

Category:People from Hopewell, Virginia

Category:African-American short story writers

Category:Old Dominion University alumni

Category:Spalding University faculty

Category:21st-century African-American writers

Category:20th-century African-American writers

Category:African-American male writers