ABOUT ME

Unveiling the Writer

From around age 7, I knew that writing would play an important part in my life. I spent all the free time I had studying my favorite authors and hoping that one day, I could emulate them. They include Virginia Woolf, Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, Betty Smith, Sholem Aleichem, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Ivan Turgenev. 

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Once I'd finish a new book, I'd write a review for it, talk about it over dinner with my family, and then, I'd return to my laptop and begin free-associating on ideas for my short stories. I'd spend hours perfecting every sentence, introducing myself to new vocabulary, playing around with the syntax, creating complicated characters, and coming up with plot twists.

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I've always loved creative writing, but it was when I experienced a tragedy in my life as a sophomore in high school that I began pursuing journalism, too.

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I remember the trembling in my body as I picked up the phone to share the happy news with my parents in March 2018. Not only had I just been admitted into Columbia University, but I had also become a New York Times College Scholarship winner.

Mom and Dad never responded to my call.

How and why I expected to hear from them, I didn’t know. By then, they had been dead for nearly two years.

Sometimes I wish that I could erase my adversity from my identity. It's my grief, though, that made me passionate about journalism. Why? Because journalists preserve collective memories. They do not “move on” from difficult conversations; they follow up.  How? They observe what isn’t necessarily effable, they listen to diverse perspectives, and they seek out the truth, whether it is disheartening or hopeful. I am that kind of journalist.  I am willing to listen, learn, confront, and question.

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I was 18 when I interned as a metro desk reporter at the New York Times before going on to write and edit for other publications, including Brooklyn Eagle, Spectator, Kulture Hub, PAGE Magazine, and uPolitics. Now, as a senior at Columbia University, my passion for story-telling has multiplied immeasurably; collaborating with other creatives to excavate the unknowns, the tensions, the questions, the lessons is most gratifying.

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Please feel free to get in touch with me to learn more about my unique approach to creative writing and journalism.