In June 2011, it was announced on Banks' website that she had been diagnosed with late-stage adrenal cancer. In addition, Banks wrote the book series for the network cable series 'Soul Food,' as well as the novelization of the movie 'Scarface.' Illness and death Originally a nine-book series, The Vampire Huntress Legend Series has been expanded to twelve (the last being called 'The Thirteenth'). Books 1 and 2 of The Vampire Huntress Legend Series ( Minion and The Awakening, respectively), have been optioned for Hollywood films by GothamBeach Entertainment and Griot Entertainment. She became the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, received the 2008 ESSENCE Magazine Storyteller of the Year award, as well as the 2009 Romantic Times Booklover's Convention Career Achievement Award for Paranormal Fiction. Martin's Press (NYC), Simon & Schuster (NYC), Kensington Publishing (NYC), BET/Arabesque (NYC), and Genesis Press (MS). īanks contributed to magazines and newspaper columns, and wrote commercial fiction for five major publishers: St. Before she began writing full-time, she worked at The Women's Opportunities Resource Center, where she helped develop micro-entrepreneurial career curriculums for women of low income in Philadelphia. She attended University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, where she earned her undergraduate degree and then attended Temple University's School of Communications and Theater, earning her masters in fine arts. The couple divorced and she remarried, to Al Banks, in 2000. She married Michael Esdaile, they had one child, a daughter, Helena Esdaile. Leslie Ann Peterson was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She won several literary awards, including the 2008 Essence Literary Awards Storyteller of the Year. She wrote in various genres, including African-American literature, romance, women's fiction, crime suspense, dark fantasy/horror and non-fiction.

Banks, Leslie Banks, Leslie Esdaile Banks and L. Leslie Ann Esdaile Banks ( née Peterson Decem– August 2, 2011) was an American writer under the pen names of Leslie Esdaile, Leslie E. Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Paranormal Fiction (2009) Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (Bachelor's degree)Īfrican American literature, crime suspense, dark fantasy/ horror, non-fiction, romance, women's fictionĮssence Literary Awards Storyteller of the Year (2008)īest 50 Women in Business Award for the State of Pennsylvania (2008)

The bitten leslie esdaile banks