Lolita Files is an American author,[1][2][3] screenwriter, and producer.[4] Among her six bestselling novels are book club favorites Scenes from a Sistah[5] and Child of God.[6] Her sixth novel, sex.lies.murder.fame[7] was optioned for film by Carolyn Folks for Entertainment Studios[8] with Files adapting the screenplay.
The book Once Upon A Time In Compton, by former Compton Gang Unit Detectives Timothy M. Brennan and Robert Ladd, along with Files, about Brennan and Ladd's years in the gang unit, the rise of Gangsta rap, gang wars, the L.A. riots, the investigations of the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., and the fall of the Compton Police Department was published on April 25, 2017.
Files lives in Los Angeles, where she writes novels, nonfiction, and writes and produces projects for television, film, and new media.
Early life and education
Lolita Files was born in Fort Lauderdale, FL, to Lillie (née Brackett) (d. 2008) and Arthur James Files, Sr. (d. 1999), She was named by her mother after the Stanley Kubrick film Lolita. She has one older sibling, Arthur James Files, Jr.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcast Journalism, Files returned to Fort Lauderdale, working as a marketing manager for a pharmaceutical company and as a regional property coordinator for Great Atlantic Property Management, a real estate management company based out of Newport News, VA with commercial and residential properties that spanned the Eastern Seaboard and parts of the Midwest. Her experience with the world of property management would later inform her first two novels, Scenes from a Sistah (1997), and its followup, Getting To The Good Part[13] (1999).
From 1992 to 1996, Files was the National Communications Manager for the Facilities Management division of KinderCare Learning Centers, the nation's largest provider of for-profit child care and early childhood education, then based in Montgomery, AL.
Writing
In the fall of 1994, Files overnighted two comedic short stories and fifty pages of Child of God, a dramatic novel she'd been sporadically working on for five years, to literary agency Jay Garon-Brooke Associates, Inc.,[14] the agency that represented bestselling author John Grisham. In her query letter, Files stated she had eight more short stories that went with the two she sent.
Nancy Coffey, an agent from Garon-Brooke, called the next morning requesting to see the rest of the material. A week later, Files was signed by the agency.
"Her voice just leapt off the page," Coffey told the Miami Herald. "It was fresh, uplifting and funny."[15]
Scenes From A Sistah and Child of God
After signing with Garon-Brooke, while working on completing Child of God, Files began writing another novel, Scenes from a Sistah, completing the first draft in seven days. In February 1996, Warner Books purchased Scenes for an advance of $50,000.
"It's a Cinderella story," says Caryn Karmatz Rudy, Files' editor at Warner Books. "Most often, you hear about people writing and getting a zillion rejections. But Lolita writes this book, sends it to the agency of the most successful writer in the country, and they take it. Then, we publish it. That's not your typical story."[16]
In April 1996, Files left Corporate America for a full-time career as a writer. Scenes from a Sistah debuted[17] a year later in April 1997 and was an instant hit,[18][19] quickly selling out of its first printing and landing on several bestseller lists.
"Child of God" was published in September 2001, after the release of Scenes sequel Getting to the Good Part in 1999 and Blind Ambitions, in 2000.
HodgePodge
The short stories that helped Files get signed by the Garon-Brooke literary agency were expanded into HodgePodge, a novel including several characters who feature prominently in the Scenes trilogy (Scenes from a Sistah,Getting to the Good Part, and Tastes Like Chicken). To-date, Files has not chosen to publish the book.
Off Broadway
In 1998, Files appeared in the play "Sisters Who Get Everything Without Giving Up Anything" at the Homefront Theatre,[20][21] playing lead character Rea Montgomery.[22]
Shakespeare's Hamlet vs Files' Child of God
SUNYEmpire State College offers an eight-week course, "Exploring The Disciplines: Literature (EDU-232072),"[23] centered around the examination of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Lolita Files' novel, Child of God.
Per the course description:
"Both texts include a similar story-line: a murder, an incestuous relationship, an uneasy resolution at the end. By exploring these texts written over 300 years apart, students will learn about the types of themes, questions, comparisons and insights that literature has to offer."
Who Killed Tupac? television docuseries
Files produced and appears as an investigator for A&E's six-part limited series Who Killed Tupac?[24] In the series, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump leads an in-depth investigation into the unsolved murder of hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur.
Personal life
In December 2012, Files took a genealogical DNA test through lineage tracing company African Ancestry.[25] Results came back revealing a direct link of Files' maternal ancestry[26] to the Brame and Balanta people of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa.
^"Iota Lambda Ivy Vine". The Illustrious Iota Lambda Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Archived from the original on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
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