DeLaynna Corley

While other kids in her neighborhood were catching cooties, DeLaynna was inside, watching television with her family. They saw television as an art form, scheduling their lives around shows and ignoring calls from bill collectors as the theme songs played. Bouncing between two Black worlds with a Caribbean mother and a Southern father, DeLaynna spent her days growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, surrounded by too many white people in AP classrooms and choir leagues. In a more creative space while attending Columbia College Chicago, she completed her Creative Writing B.A. early, and fell in love with her added minor in Television Writing. That led her earning her MFA in Writing and Producing for Television from Loyola Marymount University. Her stories are inspired by her family, and luckily, they haven't disowned her yet because of them. As a writer, DeLaynna focuses on Black female leads and coming-of-age narratives with themes of friendship, romance, and second chances.