Welcome!

My name is Eileen Beha, and I’m the author of two novels for middle- grade readers, ages 8 to 12, in grades 3 to 7.

Tango: The Tale of an Island Dog was published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books in 2009.

The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea: The Story of Annaliese Easterling and Throckmorton, Her Simply Remarkable Sock Monkey was published by Beach Lane Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, in 2014. The paperback edition was released on September 15, 2015.

Earlier in life I was a teacher and a middle school principal. I live in Minneapolis with my husband, Ralph, and two terriers, Tango and Daisy. My life is greatly enriched by our four grown children, their spouses, and four grandsons.

My passions are reading, writing, family, and friends. I love black-capped chickadees, cardamom buns, hot black coffee, and walking on the trails along Minnehaha Parkway. Within my family I’m best-known for stirring up batches of buttermilk pancakes from scratch and baking brownies that once won a blue ribbon at the Waukesha County Fair in southern Wisconsin, where I grew up. I treasure the kind of solitude that sparks creativity and deepens my spiritual journey.

My favorite book as a child was Anne of Green Gables. I wish that I: had written To Kill a Mockingbird; could have dined with E. B. White at the Gramercy Tavern in New York City; could have hiked in the Green Mountains of Vermont with Robert Frost, or strolled the sandy beaches on Prince Edward Island with Lucy Maud Montgomery. My present-day literary heroes are Minnesota authors Louise Erdrich and Kate DiCamillo, whom I might just run into at Birchbark Books or The Wild Rumpus, bookstores near to where I live.

I hold a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Hamline University. I am represented by Linda Pratt of the Wernick & Pratt Agency, who has believed in me and my work from the very beginning.