Orliana Morag is an author based in NYC. She is most interested in the stories people tell themselves in order to survive.

Orliana is a University of Chicago graduate. There, she studied English, History, and Creative Writing, and incorporates her passion for research into her writing. For her English and History theses, she examined the status of women who engaged in extra-marital sex in England during the Victorian Era, with a focus on how they were prevented from improving their situations by middle-class conceptions of morality. Her Creative Writing thesis was a novel excerpt that explored loss, loneliness, and the art of the Hudson River School and Pre-Raphaelite movements.

Archival Work

Orliana handles the archive of artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. Previously, she worked at the New York Philharmonic’s Archives, researching and curating an exhibition on the orchestra’s history with Béla Bartók.

Editing

During her time at UChicago, Orliana served as the Prose Editor and subsequently Managing Editor of Euphony, the University’s oldest literary magazine. There and in her Creative Writing workshops, she learned to appreciate many different genres and value craft above all else.

Social Engagement

Orliana has worked for the past thirteen years on the Ship of Tolerance, an international art project created by artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. The project unites children of different religions, races, genders, and socio-economic backgrounds by having them learn about one another and collaborate on their own artistic works. The project has been realized over a dozen times across four continents, and the next iteration will be in Oakville, Canada in May 2025.