Welcome, stranger

Life is strange and hard and often beautiful.

I’m Alaya Dawn Johnson, award-winning speculative fiction author, immigrant, serious black girl nerd and trauma survivor. I moved to Mexico seven years ago and rural Mexico nine months ago and the way I’ve seen the world has been completely upended, in a good way. Subscribe for personal essays about my life in rural Oaxaca: me grappling with the big existential questions of how to be a writer, an immigrant, a Spanish-as-a-second-language speaker, and someone living very far from where she was born. All is free for now, but if you’re feeling generous, I’d be grateful for a subscription and financial support if you have it to give. If you do subscribe, I will be sure to answer any of your questions in one of the upcoming question and answer columns.