Lea Aschkenas is a Northern California writer, public librarian, and poet-teacher with California Poets in the Schools. Her memoir, Es Cuba: Life and Love on an Illegal Island, tells the story of the year she spent living in Cuba. Her children’s book, Arletis, Abuelo, and the Message in a Bottle, is based on a true message in a bottle story set in California and Cuba.

Lea has written for World Literature Today, Salon.com, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Poets Reading the News, among other publications. She has received grants, scholarships, and residencies from the Center for Cultural Innovation, The Community of Writers, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods, and Can Serrat Arts Centre in Spain. Lea has given presentations about her books at various venues including the Havana International Book Fair and the California Library Association annual conference.