Whitney Lakin

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Whitney Lakin (born February 12, 1979 in Pontiac, Michigan) is a novelist, poet, short story and travel writer, gothic model and foreign language professor. Lakin was born and raised outside Detroit, Michigan. She has lived briefly in Washington, D.C., Orleans, France and Montpellier, France. Since 2002, she has lived in New Orleans, a town she cites as her spiritual, psychic and creative home. Since her move, the city has featured prominently in her writing. In 2006, Lakin also began doctoral research at Tulane University. Her primary area of interest is literature of the supernatural, including the French conte fantastique and New Orleans literature. In 2006, she was awarded the MAAS prize for her critical essay on exile in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

Lakin's fiction has been touted as masterful and sardonic excursions into the depths of hell. She is best known for her full-length horror novel, A Paintbrush in the Devil's Toolbox and her spoken word collection, White Noise, Black Words. The latter is a rare find to which her younger brother and soul mate, Noah Lakin, contributed only two years before his death at age 20. Her poetry has been featured in The Harrow Anthology, the proceeds of which go to Doctors Without Borders. She has also placed fiction with Trail of Indiscretion, Midnight Times and Black Petals and Twisted Dreams Magazine.

As a model, Lakin has faced the camera multiple times. In 2003, she appeared as the devil in a black and white series shot by New Orleans based photographer Todd Voltz. Lakin has appeared multiple times in New Witch magazine.

Lakin is a member of the Seven Devils artist community in New Orleans, Louisiana. Decadent and socially conscious, affiliates are equally known for their brooding, often suicidal take on life and their keen sense of humor and play.