2 minute read
on the quad
Miles Mehta Harris
CHILD OF ALEX HARRIS ’10 AND ANEESHA MEHTA (SEE PAGE 65) N.K.O.T.Q. * * New Kids on the Quad ALUMNI FAMILIES & THEIR LATEST ADDITIONS
Fiona
CHILD OF ELISE LOCKAMYKASSIM ’05 AND HER HUSBAND, AYODEJI KASSIM (SEE PAGE 64) Willa Dwyer Samuelson
CHILD OF MAISY SAMUELSON ’00 AND HER WIFE, JEN (SEE PAGE 61)
Byron “Hunter” Anderson
CHILD OF JOANNA CHOW ’04 AND BRET ANDERSON (SEE PAGE 62) Adam Shalev Shoihat
CHILD OF NAOMI HAUSMAN SHOIHAT ‘00 AND HER HUSBAND, BORIS (SEE PAGE 62) Postscript
CONTINUED FROM P. 68
Cora
CHILD OF LILY BROWN ’99 AND HER HUSBAND, CHARLES (SEE PAGE 61) ing an expansive imagination is, I think, generally finding the world and its people fascinating (and perhaps other worlds, too).
What helps me as a writer is twofold: First, as with my family dinner- table conversations, there needs to be a lull. A pause. Some quiet when I’m walking the dog or doing laundry or planting potatoes. And in the quiet, my imagination breathes. My mind benefits from being away from phone, from screen, from distractions. Just being. The second is what was there all along—the ability and desire to ask questions: What’s the most exciting idea in mathematics these days? What was your favorite childhood food, and who made it with or for you? What do you miss most when you’re at sea for months at a time? What do you wish people knew about you? I write to understand. I write to be better informed. I write to share uncommon experiences that can explain a common truth—something relatable that might help a reader or listener feel less alone. Imagination has the power to ease suffering. Imagination is wondering what could be from what we already know. Most of all, imagination is thinking. Wondering.
Listening to people, finding out who they are, where they’ve come from, what they know, I find my own views expand, informing how imagination is at play in my work and in my day-to-day life. To use imagination on the page, we must first use it in our day-to-day lives. We have to wonder about others. We have to find ways to connect.
EMILY FRANKLIN ’90, P’17, ’22, ’25 IS THE AUTHOR OF MORE THAN 20 NOVELS. HER DEBUT POETRY COLLECTION WAS PUBLISHED IN
2021. HER NEXT NOVEL, BECOMING ISABELLA, BASED ON THE LIFE OF
