About

Laili Gohartaj is a classically trained musician, writer, artist, raver, and professional fundraiser. She has a bachelor’s of music in clarinet performance and a master’s of English, with a focus on creative nonfiction, both from Holy Names University. Laili’s essays are intimate reflections on her experiences with childhood homelessness, growing up in a mixed-race family, and leaving her abusive engagement.

Laili was a finalist for the 2021 Crazyhorse Nonfiction Prize (now the swamp pink prize) before publishing her first essay, “Summation,” in The Hennepin Review (August 2022.) She was a 2022 Periplus Fellow, and her poem, “Things that I wish my father had said,” appears in the Periplus Call & Response Anthology. Her essay, “Fossils,” was a finalist for The 2023 Anne C. Barnhill Prize for Creative Nonfiction and was published in the Longridge Review (Fall 2023.) “Fossils” was also nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Laili’s essay “Sunflower” won The Porch Prize for Creative Nonfiction in 2024 and was published in the Spring 2024 edition of SWING.

Laili’s favorite movie is “Jurassic Park,” she once posed as a press photographer in hopes of meeting Ta-Nehisi Coates (she didn’t), and she loves making and trading Kandi bracelets. She lives in Oakland, California where she grows flowers for hummingbirds.