Brit Bennett is an American writer based in Los Angeles. She was born on January 1, 1990, in Oceanside, San Diego County, California. Bennett's debut novel, The Mothers, was published in 2016 and became a New York Times bestseller. Her second novel, The Vanishing Half, was released in 2020 and also achieved bestseller status on the New York Times list. The Vanishing Half was selected as a Good Morning America Book Club selection and was named one of The New York Times' ten best books of 2020. The novel was shortlisted for the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction.