Angela Lucille Longo is a narrative fiction picture book writer. She draws inspiration from her own experiences as a mother and child at heart. She loves writing books about creativity, friendship, social issues, nature, and anything spooky or humorous. Through her stories, she hopes to inspire a life-long love for reading.
Angela is a member of the 12 x 12 Picture Book Challenge and SCBWI. She is the facilitator of two critique groups.
Although she now types her stories, she first began writing on a fold-up Barbie phone with a notepad and a golf pencil. Unfortunately, her toddler noodle writing was never translated to English. In second grade, she remembers listening to Nancy Tafuri read her beloved picture book, I Love You Little One, and being inspired to one day become a published picture book author, too. In seventh grade, Angela won a town-wide poetry contest and had a poem published in a regional poetry magazine. In high school, she won several Scholastic Gold Key Awards and was published in her school’s literary magazine, Blutopia. Her love for creative writing never waned, in college she double majored in Psychology and Exercise and Sport Science at UNC Chapel Hill, then went on to earn a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy from Boston University. After becoming a mother, she reclaimed her identity as a writer, and she continues to pursue her dream.
Angela currently lives in the greater Boston area with her husband (Erik), son (Remy), and maltipoo (Eloise). Beyond reading and writing, Angela loves gardening, baking, crafting, hiking, and ice skating. If she could live anywhere, she would live on a few acres near a big city (where it’s sunny during the day and rains at night). She would have pet alpacas, grow pomelos, and have a treehouse studio.
Although her days of drinking lattes and café Americanos are sadly over (due to her chronic illnesses), her favorite teas are ginger, chai, and cinnamon rooibos. She is now learning to love electrolyte drinks and compression tights to help manage her symptoms related to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
• Angela is named after her Cuban grandmother, Argelia Maria Saltalamacchia. Although both feisty, Angela would never stick her hand up a pet chicken’s butt in search of eggs… unlike her grandma Argelia, when she was a child. In fact, Angela is vegan… and allergic to eggs.- • Angela once had a toilet-shaped piñata for her birthday. And this year, her son is looking forward to a poop-themed birthday (at his request).
• In kindergarten, Angela beat a fifth-grade boy in an arm-wrestling match on the school bus. She had her gymnastics strength training to thank for that.- • Angela comes from a musically gifted family. Growing up, she learned to play the piano, clarinet, tenor saxophone, violin, flute, and piccolo. In middle school, she sometimes had to bring four of these instruments to school with her, all on the same day. She’ll let you guess which ones. As you could imagine, the school bus driver was not her biggest fan.
• In college, Angela taught herself how to crochet for a class project. She then secretly used her skills to yarn-bomb old and rusty things around campus in the middle of the night. It drew enough attention that the school replaced them. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone.
Dianne Personett Photography
- • Angela first got engaged and married to her high school sweetheart two months after their first date… during a theatrical production of Father of the Bride. Six years later, they got married again, but this time it was official.