“Senna writes beautifully about the complexity of identity, the intersection of racial consciousness, and class awareness, and individual perspective.”

—Vogue

One of contemporary fiction’s funniest and most perceptive social observers, Danzy Senna is the author of six critically acclaimed novels that offer biting commentary on the complex cultural geography of identity. Her first novel, Caucasia, won the Book of the Month Award for First Fiction and the American Library Association’s Alex Award. Lauded for its “impressive beauty and power” (Newsweek), the book was a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, was named a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year and has been translated into twelve languages. Senna’s latest novel, Colored Television, a dark comedy about love and ambition, failure and reinvention, has been praised as a “brilliant, of-the-moment, just really almost perfect book” (Kirkus Reviews).

An instant national bestseller, Colored Television tells the story of Jane, a struggling California novelist making a desperate attempt to start a career in television. The book was longlisted for the 2025 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, a finalist for the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. It was also a Good Morning America Book Club pick and was named as a Best Book of 2024 by The Washington Post, The New York Times and Time magazine.

“This is the New Great American Novel, and Danzy Senna has set the standard.”  

—The Los Angeles Times

Her other books include the novel Symptomatic and the acclaimed short story collection You Are Free. Her memoir, Where Did You Sleep Last Night? A Personal History, was praised as “a stunningly rendered personal heritage that mirrors the complexities of race, class, and ethnicity in the U.S.” by Booklist in a starred review. New People, a searingly honest and darkly humorous novel of contemporary manners, was named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, Vogue, Time magazine, and NPR.

“I stayed up way later than planned to finish New People, Danzy Senna’s riveting, take-no-prisoners, dystopic dream of a novel. More scorcher than satire, New People loads identity, race, despair, and desire into a blender then hits high. Get ready to stay up late, to be propelled, pricked, and haunted.” 

—Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts

Senna is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award and the 2016 Dos Passos Prize for Literature. She has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Vogue, among other publications. She is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California.