Arya H. Mariam* is a librarian and a writer who became ensnared by fantasy at a young age. She engaged topics of different cultures, social sciences, history, and postcolonial studies in the university, which fueled her interest in expanding her horizons. Her Masters’ thesis in Religious Studies opened the door to the world of religion and culture in South and Southeast Asian history, a muse to ever whisper in her ear and lead her from less Euro-American centric ideas. Yet the ideas she questions are still a part of her, and she continuously challenges them — or life makes her challenge them for the better. After acquiring her Masters in Information Science, Arya has failed to seal the door, now simply possessed by her pen.
While working on perfecting her craft as an aspiring writer, Arya has also in the past few years taken keen interest in social justice issues. This heavily influences her role as an educator and writer. Her marginal identities/experiences she holds is being a woman, multiracial,* a member of the LGBTQ+ community, having pagan-influenced beliefs, was identified with PDD when younger, and was raised by a single mother (with person of color family) until later in life. In this, she also examines and endeavors to challenge the advantages/privileges that come from being born and raised in the United States’ middle class as a native English speaker, cisgender, possessing passing privilege from ethnic ambiguity,* functioning as mostly able-bodied (hearing, sighted, walking, etc), and having been initially baptized in a Catholic community.
*I am specifically a Eurasian who is Southeast Asian (Vietnamese) via my grandmother with additional heritages but none I identify with due to lack of history with them. I deliver my positionality to avoid perpetuating power imbalances caused by colorism and passing privilege. This name is primarily a pen name to keep some anonymity until I am ready to publish.