Emily Kalash

Hello! My name is Emily Kalash.
I was born and raised in Illinois and the connection I have to Midwest America is something I constantly look to for inspiration. While often overlooked, I feel the diverse lives of those who live and grow in the towns and suburbs are something to be celebrated. Those are the stories I connect with. I graduated from Columbia College in Chicago in May of 2017. While there, I studied Cinema Art + Science and concentrated in Screenwriting. I come from a family of construction managers and drafters. Studying something as creative as writing was an exciting new road for me. Never had I been surrounded by people who considered themselves artists. When I completed my first draft of Hold My Hand I remember the emotions. At last, I was too, an artist. I had something to show what I had constructed.

I struggled with art school initially because I doubted myself. What was I trying to say to those directly reading my writing? What if someone did not like what I wrote? The answers to these questions I couldn’t read in a book. I had to suffer through and grow into them. I learned the most important skill in this industry: trust yourself. I had people tell me that my gender, my sexuality, my experiences were not valid. The voices around me and in my head were plenty to distract from my creativity. I stepped away from writing and focused on other things in my life. However, I eventually came back because if you passionately feel connected to something you must follow it.