On today's episode, we're chatting with Kayla Degala-Paraiso, an experimental, cross-genre, short-form writer. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Pitzer College. The title-story of her undergraduate capstone collection, “Morena,” was awarded the 2018 Bea Matas Hollfelder Award. Her debut publication, “This Is How You Haunt Me,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Creative Nonfiction. Her writing often explores emotional and political entanglements; challenges craft conventions; and sucker-punches you in the gut.

Kayla’s family migrated from the Philippines. Movement is in Kayla’s bones: she has lived in NYC, Connecticut, Southern California, Italy, Nepal, Boston, Northern California, and Los Angeles. Movement has taught her that there are endless ways of existing — both within oneself and as a part of society. She has learned that those who cannot exist in peace suffer because of dissonance between how they exist within themselves, and how society requires them to exist. Kayla dedicates her life to replacing that dissonance with harmony through socio-political change and writing. Thus, she organizes communities around labor, immigration, and transnational human rights; and teaches both literature and creative writing. While her literature classes are offered exclusively to UCLA students through UCLA’s Department of Comparative Literature, her virtual creative writing classes are hosted through GrubStreet and are open to the public. Kayla also consults writers of all genres and forms on their writerly projects.

Kayla is currently a student in UCLA Luskin’s dual Master of Public Policy and Master of Social Welfare program. When she’s not studying or teaching, Kayla works on two writerly projects: a speculative story about the missing goddess of the underworld, and a collection of pieces about surviving the westside of Los Angeles. Kayla publishes under “K.” Follow her at kdegalaparaiso.com.

Kayla metioned A Bestiary by Lily Hoang

https://bookshop.org/a/90599/9780996316743

A little about today's host-

Shawna Rodrigues left her award-winning career in the public sector in 2019 to consult and publish her first novel Beyond the Pear Blossoms. Her desire to connect and help others led to the launch of her podcast The Grit Show shortly thereafter. When she learned women host only 27% of podcasts, her skills and passion led to the founding of the Authentic Connections Network. She now helps mission-driven entrepreneurs better connect with their audiences by providing full-service podcast production and through a community for Entrepreneurs & Podcasters – EPAC. Podcasting is her primary focus, so she continues to support the writing community through this podcast, and her writing time is mostly focused on anthologies.

She offers a free 7 Steps to Perfect Your Podcast Title to anyone interested in launching a podcast. You can also follow her on Instagram-@ShawnaPodcasts, and learn more about the network and community at https://linktr.ee/37by27.

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