Orliana Morag is an author based in NYC. She recently completed her first novel, a story of grief and recovery tentatively titled, She Saw Me in the Water, and is now working on a new novel about the anxieties of motherhood.
Orliana is a University of Chicago graduate. 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.
She Saw Me in the Water draws from Orliana’s research on loss and loneliness, as well as from her study of the Pre-Raphaelite and Hudson River School artistic movements.
Archival Work
Orliana has worked as an archivist for the New York Philharmonic, researching and curating an exhibition on the orchestra’s history with Béla Bartók. She currently works for Ilya and Emilia Kabakov as their chief archivist and editor.
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 twelve 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 a dozen times across four continents, and the next iteration will be in Thessaloniki, Greece in May 2023.