Get to know Ava Dellaira

Ava Dellaira was born in Los Angeles. She received her undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago, and then received her MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop after which she moved to Los Angeles assisting Stephen Chbosky, the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, as an associate producer on his film adaptation of the book. Author of Love Letters to the Dead, Ava adapted it into a screenplay for Temple Hill (the company that produced Twilight and The Fault In Our Stars). She has since written In Search of Us and the upcoming adult novel Exposure.

Hometown

Albuquerque, NM

Fun fact

I have no middle name

Favorite author

Jesmyn Ward, Ann Patchett, Joan Didion, James Baldwin, Elena Ferrante

Favorite place in the world

Sandwiched between my two kids as they fall asleep

Favorite place to read

In bed by candlelight. Also I love airplanes for reading! And beaches / poolsides—who doesn’t?

Books by Ava Dellaira

Exposure

Published September 10, 2024

Exposure forces readers to reckon with both sides of a story that’s not easily reduced to right or wrong.  

One night. Two sides of a story.  In multi-perspective storytelling filled with humanity and empathy, Exposure forces readers to reckon with conflicting truths that are not easily reduced to right or wrong.  

In 2004, Juliette Marker, a white college freshman, and Noah King, a Black high school senior, are two lonely souls who enter each other’s orbit, forge a connection, and go home together after a night out.

Twelve years later, Noah has done the impossible and made it in Hollywood. His first film is about to be released, and he and his beloved wife Jesse, a successful writer herself, have just had a baby. Meanwhile, Juliette’s best friend Annie is back in LA for the first time in more than a decade, and makes a startling discovery about Juliette that will threaten to blow up the life Noah has struggled to build.

Spanning decades, from LA to Chicago, and told through Annie, Juliette, Noah, and Jesse’s perspectives, this powerful, provocative novel delves into one fateful night and the people affected by it, exploring how race, artistic ambition, and grief expose different versions of the same story.

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Exposure