International coverage

Stefania Leão is a Brazilian author and the #1 Amazon bestselling writer of The Prayer: Rise with Jesus, an award-winning 30-day Christian devotional published in seven languages. She writes from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Stefania Fernanda Leão is a Brazilian writer whose debut devotional, The Prayer: Rise with Jesus, became a #1 Amazon Best Seller in English, Portuguese, and Italian, and a three-time international book award winner. Born and raised in Brazil, she carries a uniquely Brazilian warmth into every page: sun-soaked, rooted in scripture, and unafraid of the dark parts of the human story. Today she writes from the San Francisco Bay Area, where her work continues to reach readers across five continents.

Stefania Fernanda Leão is a Brazilian author whose debut devotional, The Prayer: Rise with Jesus, has quietly become one of the most beloved morning prayer books of the year, a #1 Amazon Best Seller in English, Portuguese, and Italian, and a three-time international book award winner. Born and raised in Brazil, Stefania carries a uniquely Brazilian warmth into every page she writes: sun-soaked, deeply rooted in scripture, and unafraid of the dark parts of the human story. The Prayer was born in one of the darkest seasons of Stefania's life. She was not yet a published author. She was a young woman trying to find her way back to the light, writing one morning prayer at a time for herself. What she discovered, page by page, was that the discipline of meeting God in the morning was the very thread that pulled her out of the dark. By the time she had thirty prayers, she had also been quietly rebuilt. She made the book she wished she'd had during her hardest year. In 2025, The Prayer was named winner of the Best Indie Book Award for Christian Prayer & Meditation, the Storytrade Award for Christian Devotional, and the Readers' Favorite Book Award for Devotion & Study, three international honors in a single calendar year. The book is now published in seven languages. Stefania is the primary author and original creator of The Prayer, having written the manuscript from her own story of faith, with Alexander Debelov joining as co-author and illustrator to help shape and publish the finished book. Today, Stefania writes from her home in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she continues to grow her work as an author, and where every cent the book has ever earned helps fund homeless outreach in San Francisco and a ministry partnership in Malawi.