About the Author

Rebecca Haile was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1965. She came to the United States in 1976, two years after the Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed in the military coup of 1974, and shortly after her father, a leading academic in Addis Ababa, was targeted by the military junta and shot while resisting arrest. He barely survived, and the family managed to escape and eventually settled in central Minnesota, where they struggled with the strain of their drastically changed circumstances.

Rebecca left Minnesota to attend Williams College in Massachusetts where she majored in English. She then attended Harvard Law School, where she was as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduated with honors. She clerked for the Hon. Judge Dorothy Nelson of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and then worked at law firms in Washington, D.C. and in New York. She left the law to work as a freelance writer. Held at a Distance is her first book.

Rebecca lives in New York City with her husband Jean Manas and their two young children. She is a member of Manhattan's Community Board 6 and active in other community organizations.