FORMAL, third person biography:
Léna Roy was raised in New York City, in the cloistered environs of a theological seminary, and survived the extracurricular education provided by Manhattan’s 1980s club scene. Holding an BA in English from Barnard and a MA in Drama Therapy from NYU, Léna has worked as a bartender, an
actor, and with at-risk adolescents in Utah, California, and New York. As the Westchester Program Manager for Writopia Lab, a not-for-profit dedicated to empowering youth through creative
writing, Léna now teaches kids and teens in New York City’s northern
suburbs.
Mentoring is the connective tissue in Léna’s life. She descends from a family of writers, including her grandmother, Madeleine L’Engle, who remains her inspiration and touchstone; Léna herself mentors students through her work as a teacher; and in her debut novel EDGES, the young protagonists see
their way forward by those who have walked ahead of them. Léna now lives in Katonah, New York,
where she and her husband raise three children.
Casual, first person bio:
I grew up in an eclectic atmosphere in New York City, surrounded by artists, writers, priests, teachers: academia and bohemia commingling to shape me into a seeker of art and spirituality. I am also the product of a generation that had a paralysis of infinite choices in what to do, who to be.
I have grown up through writing. My grandmother gave me my first journal when I was nine. I still have it: a thin, dark blue leather bound book. A book to be taken seriously. I have kept a journal by my bedside and in my purse ever since. The practice has helped shape who I am and how I think and I have often joked that it has been my one and only discipline.
So yes, I always wrote, yet for a long time I did not take myself or my writing very seriously.
I wrote through my school years, where I also fell in-love with acting. I wrote short stories and lots of bad poetry while studying English and Italian literature at Barnard College. I wrote monologues and performance pieces while I bartended and acted some more. I wrote while pursuing a Masters degree in Drama Therapy from NYU.
Then I found my comfort-zone working with teens, and at the age of thirty-five finally gave myself permission to work on a long piece of fiction. I dared to dream of being a "writer". I did not write with an audience in mind, but it's no wonder that when I started EDGES, the teen voices shone through.
I have a companion novel to Edges waiting in the wings, and another novel well on the way. And I love, love, love to share my thoughts and my life on my blog!
Read and write on!
