Brit Bennett (MFA, U-M English, 2014) appears in the "TIME100 Next” list for 2021. The list recognizes 100 rising stars in entertainment, health, politics, business, and beyond. In an accompanying article, author Tayari Jones praises Bennett’s storytelling, identifying her as an artist “informed and inspired by the intensities and complexities of our present moment."

Bennett's debut novel, The Mothers, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for both the NBCC John Leonard First Novel Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. Her second novel, The Vanishing Half, was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller, longlisted for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Women’s Prize, and named one of the ten best books of the year by The New York Times. Bennet has been named a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, a NAACP Image Award Finalist, and one of Time’s Next 100 Influential People. Her essays have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, and Jezebel.