Portrait of author in Chennai, India by Jayashree Sahithya
On Substack
New Essay on The Long Road Home
One of my earliest reinventions happened at the start of ninth grade. The year before, I was a deeply depressed teenager who believed she wouldn’t live past sixteen. I had even made a small clay gravestone for myself with the years 1982–1996 etched into it. But when the date came and went and I was still alive, something shifted. I walked back into those same hallways determined to become someone new—bomber jackets, platform boots, and the quiet confidence of a girl who had faced her darkness and chosen to keep going. Looking back now, I see that moment as my first lesson in transformation: sometimes the most important chapters of our lives are written in the space between who we were and who we are becoming.
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
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a popular photo essay from india
ritual head shaving
Portrait of author in Chennai, India by Jayashree Sahithya
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.
