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Attica Locke  

Writer & Producer of Fox's "Empire"

Attica Locke's first novel, "Black Water Rising," was nominated for a 2010 Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award, as well as a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was short-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize in the UK (now the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction). Her second book, "The Cutting Season," published by Dennis Lehane books, is a national bestseller. It was named an Honor Book by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, was long-listed for the Chautauqua Prize, and is the 2013 winner of the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, the largest literary prize for African-Americans.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Locke was a fellow at the Sundance Institute's Feature Filmmakers Lab. She spent many years as a screenwriter, writing scripts for Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, HBO, and Dreamworks and is a writer and co-producer on the Fox drama Empire, created by Lee Daniels (The Butler, Precious) and Danny Strong (Game Change, The Hunger Games).

She is a member of the academy for the Folio Prize in the UK and is also on the board of directors for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.

A native of Houston, Texas, she is the sister of actress Tembi Locke.

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