Leah Connor
I spent 22 years working at Learning Without Tears, a family-owned company in Maryland that specializes in handwriting, early learning, and keyboarding. It seems a bit kismet considering I had horrible penmanship as a child despite always loving to write, eventually earning my MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. I love learning about graphic design, web administration, email marketing, event management, and social media both on the job and in my 13 years volunteering with the Charlottesville Track Club.

hometown:
born in Findlay, OH, raised in Reading, PA, worked in DC for 12 years, living in Pantops/Charlottesville, VA since 2005.

favorite inspirational quote:
Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we might oft win by fearing to attempt.
From “Measure for Measure” by Shakespeare
I am not a huge Shakespeare fan, I prefer James Joyce, but my husband is an 17th century scholar who shared his colleague’s favorite Shakespeare quote with me back in 2012. It’s been a running mantra and trivia team name ever since!

favorite author:
James Joyce. I got married on Bloomsday, June 16, the day depicted in his novel Ulysses. I named my son, Laoghaire Ignatius, after the Irish town Dún Laoghaire where you’ll find the James Joyce Tower & Museum and a character from the short story “A Little Cloud” in Dubliners. My daughter’s name, Annalivia Plurabelle, comes from a character in Finnegans Wake, who’s a personification of the River Liffey, which flows through Dublin.

on the weekend, you’ll find me:
Running, walking, playing Pokémon GO, frequently texting my identical twin sister, and, on special occasions, cheering at a race in an inflatable costume.