Leone, Angela Tehaan

PERSONAL:

Married.

ADDRESSES:

Home—McLean, VA.

CAREER:

Writer, poet, and teacher.

MEMBER:

Radius of Arab American Writers.

WRITINGS:

Swimming toward the Light (novel), Syracuse University Press (Syracuse, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Washingtonian, Ladies' Home Journal, and the New York Times.

SIDELIGHTS:

Angela Tehaan Leone is a fiction writer, poet, and teacher of English and dramatic arts living in McLean, Virginia. While writing the novel Swimming toward the Light, Leone claims on her home page to have learned more about herself. Leone stated: "The memories that came back to me as I was writing, reconnected me with my ethnic heritage, which, of course, is an essential part of who I am, a part I can now fully embrace and welcome."

Despite being a work of fiction, Swimming toward the Light is based on Leone's own life and family. The novel features a Lebanese-American family living in Washington, DC, where young Irene attempts to develop freely despite her mother's attempts to allow any sort of chance development outside her control. A contributor to Publishers Weekly suggested that some readers could "be seduced by the Mideast immigrant angle," but overall, lamented that "the story and storytelling are disappointing." Emily Cook, writing in Booklist, concluded that "fans of Arab-American literature will especially love the details that flavor Leone's touching novel."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2007, Emily Cook, review of Swimming toward the Light, p. 32.

Publishers Weekly, January 8, 2007, review of Swimming toward the Light, p. 33.

ONLINE

Angela Tehaan Leone Home Page,http://www.angelatehaanleone.com (August 20, 2007), author biography.