Leah Franqui

Leah Franqui is a Philadelphia-born literary fiction writer whose life has been anything but conventional. A Yale graduate with a Theater Studies degree, she zigzagged through careers as a line chef, real estate agent, sewing teacher, and voiceover artist before finding her calling. Her path to authorship wound through NYU-Tisch's Dramatic Writing program, where she met her husband, an Indian screenwriter—a meeting that would eventually take her halfway around the world to Mumbai, where she now lives and writes.

Franqui's 2018 debut novel, America for Beginners, showcases her gift for weaving cross-cultural narratives with emotional depth. The story follows Pival, a widowed Indian mother traveling across America to uncover the truth about her estranged gay son, accompanied by an inexperienced guide and a struggling actress. Drawing from her own experience bridging American and Indian cultures, Franqui crafts characters who discover themselves while navigating unfamiliar terrain. Her background in theater shines through in her sharp dialogue and richly drawn personalities, making her work resonate with readers who crave stories about identity, family, and belonging.