Writing to express oneself versus writing a story others want to read can be two very different processes. The first is raw; the second is edited. The path in between is not linear. For me, I began my story with an idea about a self-isolated, ungrounded woman who lives in her head without a sense of where she belongs in the world, except in studying ancient history, anthropology, and archaeology. Her full identity revolves around her [...]

Klara’s Truth is my debut novel, and my first published piece ever, other than an article I wrote for the Medium’s blog Invisible Illness at the beginning of the pandemic. A friend recently asked me if I’ve always been a writer, and I replied, “Actually, no.” He was a bit surprised. I thought back to writing as a kid. I spent much of fourth grade, writing about a girl named Elvira in a black and white [...]