🧠 Featuring Oksana Marafioti an American author and educator best known for her memoir American Gypsy, which explores her Romani, Armenian, and Soviet-era roots. She founded Lounge Writers, an online creative-writing studio where she continues to lead classes and mentorship programs for emerging writers. Her essays and fiction appear in outlets like TIME and Slate, and she teaches and speaks internationally, including her 2020 appointment as Picador Guest Professor of Literature at the University of Leipzig. Her current work focuses on supporting underrepresented voices and expanding conversations around identity and storytelling.