Leila Philip
Professor, Rev. John E. Brooks, S.J. Chair in the Humanities
Biography
In October 2026, the New York Public Library and the Random House Publishing Group announced award-winning author Leila Philip as the inaugural Kate Medina Fellow for Literary Narrative Nonfiction. The Kate Medina Fellowship supports writers whose projects engage with the world-class collections of the Library's flagshipStephen A. Schwarzman building.
The Fellowship promotes originality and literary excellence in nonfiction works that combine strong storytelling, reportorial precision, artistic writing, and depth of research into important subjects and ideas. It was established in 2026 with the generous support of Random House and of Kate Medina, former Executive Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Executive Editorial Director at Random House.
Philip is the author of Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America. The book was a New York Times Editor's Choice, a New York Times bestseller, and an NPR Science Friday Book Club Selection.
Previous books by Philip include The Road Through Miyama and A Family Place, A Hudson Valley Farm, Three Centuries, Five Wars, One Family. Philip has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Nationa lEndowment for the Humanities.