On Substack
New Essay on The Long Road Home
I wrote this essay in 2002, in the long aftershock of September 11, while traveling through Kerala, South India. I was young, far from home, and watching the world harden in real time.
Recently, I reread it—and felt how little has changed. Once again, we’re witnessing violence ripple across the Middle East. Once again, images arrive faster than understanding. Once again, the question lingers: is peace truly possible?
This isn’t a political argument. It’s a memory. A moment when thousands of people gathered in a small town to insist that unity still mattered.
Read it now on The Long Road Home.
New Paid Subscriber Series on Substack
WHERE YAMUNA FLOWS:
Dispatches from the heart of India
Where Yamuna Flows, my new paid Substack series, launches December 3 as I travel across India with my family and navigate the wild, wondrous world of self-publishing and marketing my forthcoming poetry book.
This series is a deeper, more intimate companion to The Long Road Home—a place for behind-the-scenes storytelling, creative process notes, audio essays, and reflections on ancestry, craft, motherhood, and the diasporic journey. If you want to walk with me as the words take shape in real time, I’d be honored to have you there.
Storytelling For self-exploration
for the curious wanderer
read
a popular photo essay from india
ritual head shaving
Meet Yamuna Flaherty
WRITER, MOTHER + STORYKEEPER
Yamuna Flaherty is a writer, mother and storykeeper devoted to helping others uncover and tell the stories that matter most. Rooted in two decades of global travel, inner inquiry, and creative practice, Yamuna weaves memoir, ancestral reflection, and soulful expression into everything she offers—from guided storytelling sessions to thoughtful essays and creative tools. Her work invites others to explore identity, voice, and belonging through the transformative power of personal narrative. Whether through one-on-one sessions, workshops, or her Substack, The Long Road Home, Yamuna creates spaces for meaningful connection and self-authored truth.
