Hi, I'm Maya 👋

Writer, wanderer,
chronic over-thinker
— and proud of it.

I write essays about design, the art of slow living, creativity, and all the strange beautiful things that happen in between. Based somewhere between two cities and too many open browser tabs.

122 essays written
12.4k monthly readers
5+ years writing
☕ Currently sipping
Oat flat white
Extra shot, always.
📖 Currently reading
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke
"Still figuring it out, one page at a time."

A few milestones

Not a résumé — just the moments that changed something.

2019
Started Inkwell
Published my first essay on a blog nobody read. Left it up anyway.
✦ Origin story
2020
First 1,000 readers
An essay about solitude during lockdown found its people. That was the moment I understood what this was for.
✦ Community
2021
Consulting work begins
Started helping brands and founders write in a way that actually sounds human. Turns out this is a real job.
✦ Work
2022
Moved cities. Wrote about it.
Left everything familiar and wrote the most-read piece in Inkwell's history as a direct result.
✦ Change
2023
10,000 newsletter subscribers
A number that still makes me a little dizzy. Each one is a real person who chose to open my words on a Sunday morning.
✦ Growth
2024 — 26
Book proposal. Deep breath.
Writing long-form for the first time. A book about slowness, attention, and why we're all so tired. Watch this space.
✦ Next chapter

Craft & capabilities

Five years of writing professionally has sharpened a particular set of muscles. Here's where most of the energy goes.

Essay & long-form writing 95%
Brand voice & strategy 88%
Editorial design thinking 80%
Photography & visual storytelling 74%
Newsletter & community building 90%
Writing
📝 Notion ✍️ iA Writer 📖 Ulysses 🖊️ Moleskine
Design & Visual
🎨 Figma 📸 Lightroom 🖼️ Procreate
Reading & Research
📚 Kindle 🔖 Readwise 🗂️ Obsidian 🌐 Pocket
Publishing
✉️ Substack 🌍 Ghost 📊 Fathom

Books that shaped me

A rotating selection of the ones I keep coming back to. Not a definitive list — just what feels true right now.
The Artist's Way
Julia Cameron
✦ Creativity
Read this four times. Changed my relationship with making things each time.
How to Do Nothing
Jenny Odell
✦ Philosophy
A book about attention and resistance that I wish everyone would read.
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke
✦ Fiction
The most beautiful strange world I've ever been lost in. I never want to leave.
Bird by Bird
Anne Lamott
✦ Writing
The only writing book you need. Honest, funny, and completely unafraid of the mess.
The Sense of an Ending
Julian Barnes
✦ Fiction
A slim novel about memory and self-deception that took a week to process.

Let's have a
conversation

Whether you want to talk about a piece I wrote, explore working together, or just say that something resonated — my inbox is genuinely open. I read every message, and I reply to most of them.