A writer, an activist, mother, wife, colleague. Leila Abu-Saba will be missed by the VONA community. Born to a Lebanese father and American mother, Leila spent most of her life traveling between the U.S. and Lebanon. Her experiences living in her family's village near the border with Israel exposed her to experiences few Americans have. Her forthcoming novel and many of her writings describe the witnessing of raids and loss of family and friends to the ongoing border conflicts throughout her childhood as well as during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) and most recently the invasion of 2006.

Leila's perspectives are found on The Dove's Eye View: An Arab-American Woman Sees Signs of Hope. She focused on strides toward peace, truth telling and exchange. In addition, this blog has cultural elements about writers, cooking, the environment, and in the last few years, Leila's progress with her health.

Leila was a member of RAWI (Radius of Arab Writers International) and held an MFA from Mills College, where she worked with Micheline Aharonian Marcom. Her writing also can be found in Homelands: Women's Journeys Across Race, Place, and Time (edited by VONA alum, Jenesha de Rviera and Patricia Tumang) and on several blogs which gave her an international reputation.

This past summer Leila attended VONA in the Political Content workshop with Elmaz Abinader and Fiction with ZZ Packer. ZZ Packer has initiated a scholarship in Leila's name.

VONA offers its sympathies to Leila's husband, David MacLeod, and their sons, Joseph and Jacob. We will remember her forthright bravery in her work and her compassion of her being.
~ Elmaz Abinader, VONA Co-Founder