Writing

I write about culture, technology, literacy, and social life — connecting the personal to the systemic and making complex ideas accessible without oversimplifying them.

My work has been supported by grants from the Walker Art Center and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Selected Work

• Alisa Xayalith needed to go solo to reclaim her narrative — JoySauce — A profile of the Naked and Famous singer on identity, autonomy, and Southeast Asian visibility in music

• What chess can teach us about resilience — Medicinal Media — On the game of chess as a framework for thinking about struggle, patience, and recovery

• The prepper’s palette: designing for collapse in a culture of control — Design Observer — An examination of prepper aesthetics and what design culture reveals about anxiety, control, and collapse

Topics I Cover

• Culture, identity, and the Southeast Asian diaspora
• Technology, creativity, and digital life
• Design, urbanism, and the built environment
• Human-animal relationships and environmental ethics
• Literacy, writing, and learning

Find More

Full portfolio at sanaphay.portfolio.site. For editorial inquiries, head to the Contact page.