Leona Upton Illig

Leona has lived in various places around the world including Thailand, Laos, Egypt, and Yemen, and she has studied Arabic, Cambodian, Lao, Thai, and Vietnamese. As a linguist and analyst in the U.S. Department of Defense, she held positions including Team Chief, Branch Chief, Project Chief, Senior Linguist, Group Language Advisor, and Acting Site Chief. In addition to multiple short-term tours in Thailand and Laos, she served in permanent assignments to Yemen and Egypt. She was working in Yemen during the 1988 rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a, and in Egypt during the 1990-1991 Gulf War. After retiring at the rank of Defense Intelligence Senior Level, she worked as a book reviewer for Children’s Literature, LLC. Her published fiction includes a children’s book, The Elephant and the Bird Feeder, and a coming-of-age novella, Thumper: Life on the Farm. Her short stories have been published by The MacGuffin and The North Atlantic Review; her latest story was chosen for inclusion in The Bay to Ocean Journal, 2022. Her humorous non-fiction articles have been published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and by Sky & Telescope, the premier astronomy magazine in the United States. Her latest non-fiction book, Mom and Dementia and Me, was praised by the senior reviewer for “The Midwest Book Review” as “a winner.” Her latest fiction novel, Erawan: A Reckoning in Laos, was published in 2024. Her books, articles, and stories appear under the bylines L. Upton Illig and Leona Illig.