Megan Culhane Galbraith is a writer, visual artist, and an adoptee. She’s the founder of the Never Hush Workshops for Adoptees. Her debut hybrid memoir-in-essays, The Guild of the Infant Saviour: An Adopted Child’s Memory Book, was published by Mad Creek Books/Ohio State University Press in May 2021. Her work was Notable in Best American Essays 2021 and 2017, and she is the Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars ..read more

Maisarah Faisal is the Special Assistant to the Executive Director at Sunway Center for Planetary Health, Sunway University in Malaysia. She's a graduate of International Relations with Mandarin from the University of Nottingham, Malaysia. She has experience in research and analysis, new media communications and youth engagement, in both the public and private sector. She's also a youth activist. She says: If we're only stuck in our bubble, in our comfortable lives then we won't be able to empathise ..read more

Danuta Hinc is a Polish American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She holds an MA in Philology from the University of Gdańsk where she won the Polish National Competition for best dissertation is the Humanities. She received an M.F.A. in Writing and Literature from Bennington College, where she was awarded the Barry Hannah Merit Scholarship in Fiction. She teaches writing at the University of Maryland. She is the author of We Were Twins which we’re going to discuss today. She is a Principal Lecturer in the Department of English at University of Maryland where she teaches writing ..read more

Hawa Sabriye works for UNICEF Somalia as an Education Specialist. She has over 7 years of experience in education/teaching, humanitarian aid and international development. She holds a BA in English Literature and Human Geography, a BA and MA in Education, and Graduate Diplomas in Refugee and Migration Studies and Post-Secondary Education: Community, Culture, and Policy. Hawa is also a doctorate candidate at the University of Toronto in the International Education Leadership & Policy program. Her research focuses on trauma-informed teaching and learning in Somalia. Hawa’s interests include ..read more

Ms April Pham is a Senior Gender Advisor and the Head of Gender Unit in the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. She has over 25 years of experience in social justice, human rights, gender equality, and the prevention and response to violence against women/gender-based violence in development and humanitarian settings. Twitter: @MynameisApes She says, “People need to make visible the experiences and voices of women and girls and be their champions given that this is half of the population of the world. All humanitarian workers should have menstrual hygiene as their first o ..read more

Matteo Fraschini Koffi is a freelance journalist who writes, photographs and produces documentaries for radio and TV. He works for Italian and foreign media focusing exclusively on Sub-Saharan Africa. He has won the Premiolino award and published a book-diary, “Fields of red gold,"  about his experience in the ghetto of Rignano (Apulia), and his autobiography, "The black elephant calling, confessions of a journey in search of one's own identity." He says, “Be curious. People have to be curious about what is inside and outside of them and their surroundings. If you just don’t care, it’s e ..read more

Ani Kazarian is a writer and professional development coach, both of which, she believes, come down to clarifying our vision and following our intuition. Her publications include book reviews, essays, and short stories that have been featured in Consequence Magazine, Agni Online, Sampsonia Way, Aster (ix) Journal, and the Tishman Review. She says, the conversations that take place because of literature could be the catalyst to action. The best action we can take is to become aware when we're filling in the blanks for people and just ask questions.  ..read more

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“A poem can change you; A powerful short story can literally change your brain chemistry. At the individual level, the teaching of compassion, of love of community, these are the ways that I think literature probably moves us most effectively, but they're very hard to discern, I think. And you never know what that kind of reading experience is going to result in, what sort of emotional capacity it'll create in readers. Fiction is its own kind of displacement. It takes you out of yourself and temporarily puts you in a different world. If there's any positive relationship there, it's a good way ..read more

In this episode, Anna Macdonald, a Communications and Campaigns consultant and currently Human Rights Practitioner in Residence at Columbia Law School says, “In humanitarian work, there's a tendency to think that because it's a serious subject, we have to start with data, statistics, facts, and figures. These are important to provide the evidence, however, they're rarely the thing that gets you hooked. No one tends to feel passionate because they've heard a compelling piece of data. It's normally someone’s story that you’ve heard, that's moved you in some way that gets you interested ..read more