Aleksandra Corwin is an award-winning journalist and freelance writer. She specializes in interviewing smart people on esoteric subjects, and then trying to make sense of it all. She has reported extensively from around the world, with a particular focus on people in troubled hot zones like Afghanistan, Burma and Tibet. Aleks says that pulling stories out of people who often don’t even know they have one inside them is one of the best aspects of her job. She is also an accomplished speechwriter and ghostwriter, with a specialty in historical and spiritual narratives.

Aleksandra’s family fled Communist Poland when she was a little girl, and they lived in an Austrian refugee camp before immigrating to the US to pursue the American dream. She is the daughter of immigrant entrepreneurs and was a third-culture kid long before anybody knew what that was. She credits this early-onset identity crisis with sparking her love of writing and storytelling, and she began interviewing her family members at age 12, trying to make sense of the world around her. She went to NYU to study journalism, but explains that a combination of ambition and confusion led her to graduate with degrees in computer science and economics instead. She worked on Wall Street at a big investment bank you’ve probably heard of, but a few years into her life as a techie/finance geek decided that while she valued her experience there and had learned a lot, she was ready to leave New York and travel the world. She says she’s a wanderer at heart, and has been living the life of a global nomad ever since. She completed a Masters in Liberal Arts at the University of Chicago, and during that time she realized that if she didn’t return to her one true love, writing, she would lose her mind and her soul, for good. Luckily, writing welcomed her back with open arms and there she’s been ever since.

In her spare time she takes advantage of the natural beauty of her current home base in Hawaii – where she teaches yoga, and spends time surfing, scuba diving, gliding, hiking, and backcountry camping. She loves attending book clubs, Burning Man, and her local acrobatics class. Aleks says her life follows the ebbs and flows of (exuberant) periodic bursts of obsessions — her modus operandi for learning and creating. She also enjoys Scotch, chronological order, and Icelandic songstress Bjork. She loves being a writer because it allows her to study human connection and communication, and gives her an excuse to be curious and ask questions about all subjects under the sun.