Veciana-Suarez, Ana 1956-

PERSONAL:

Born 1956, in Cuba; married second husband, David Freundlich; children: (first marriage) five. Education: Graduated summa cum laude from the University of South Florida.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Miami, FL. E-mail—aveciana@aol.com.

CAREER:

Writer. Miami Herald, Miami, FL, columnist; worked previously at the Palm Beach Post as an education reporter, features writer, projects writer, and editor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Individual Artist Fellowship Award, State of Florida, 1991; Sunshine State Award, Society of Professional Journalists, South Florida chapter, 1995; Penney-Missouri Award, 1995; Excellence in Feature Writing, commentary category, American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors, 1996; IMPAC Award nomination for The Chin Kiss King.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Hispanic Media, USA: A Narrative Guide to the Print and Electronic Hispanic News Media in the United States, Media Institute (Washington, DC), 1987.

Hispanic Media: Impact and Influence, Media Institute (Washington, DC), 1990.

Birthday Parties in Heaven: Thoughts on Love, Life, Grief, and Other Matters of the Heart, Plume (New York, NY), 2000.

NOVELS

The Chin Kiss King, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 1997.

Flight to Freedom, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to periodicals, including Readers Digest, O, Woman's Day, Washington Post, Parenting, and Latina. Author of the blog What a Life!

SIDELIGHTS:

A regular columnist for the Miami Herald, Ana Veciana-Suarez has written books—both fiction and nonfiction—that concern her Cuban heritage. In 1997 Veciana-Suarez published her first novel, The Chin Kiss King. The story follows three generations of Cuban American women who are brought closer together by the birth of a disabled son. In a review for the New York Times, Jim Gladstone remarked that the novel "offers a refreshing take on characters and situations that at first glance seem bound for cliché," concluding that it is a "great success." Mostly Fiction reviewer Karma Sawka described The Chin Kiss King as "an endearing story of hope, despair, and the lessons that the three women learn from and with each other." Veciana-Suarez, wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor, is "a sensitive writer with an ear for the intonations of bilingual speech and an eye for bicultural nuance."

Birthday Parties in Heaven: Thoughts on Love, Life, Grief, and Other Matters of the Heart is a collection of Veciana-Suarez's essays on topics close to her heart, such as her emigration from Cuba to the United States as a child, the sudden death of her first husband, and the trials of single parenting. Nedra C. Evers described the book in a review for Library Journal as "an honest, unfliching account."

Veciana-Suarez next published a young adult title, Flight to Freedom, about a teenager who leaves her native Cuba with her family and struggles with the prospects of mastering English, of grieving the relatives left behind in Cuba, and of forging an identity in a new land. "Credible, absorbing, and uplifting," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who concluded that there was "plenty here for young readers to relate to." Booklist reviewer Gillian Engberg remarked that the novel "beautifully articulates the pain of exile for young readers while introducing a turbulent era in America."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2002, Gillian Engberg, review of Flight to Freedom, p. 596.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2002, review of Flight to Freedom, p. 1482.

Library Journal, April 15, 1997, Rebecca A. Stuhr-Rommereim, review of The Chin Kiss King, p. 121; January 1, 2001, Nedra C. Evers, review of Birthday Parties in Heaven: Thoughts on Love, Life, Grief, and Other Matters of the Heart, p. 122.

Publishers Weekly, June 2, 1997, review of The Chin Kiss King, p. 49.

ONLINE

Ana Veciana-Suarez Home Page,http://www.anaveciana-suarez.com (June 27, 2007).

Mostly Fiction Online,http://www.mostlyfiction.com/ (June 27, 2007), Karma Sawka, review of The Chin Kiss King.

New York Times Online,http://www.nytimes.com/ (June 27, 2007), Jim Gladstone, review of The Chin Kiss King.