Emilee Hackney: All That’s Unseen

Every once in a while, you come across a story that reminds you how much extraordinary talent exists in places where nobody is looking.

Emilee Hackney grew up in the coalfields of southwestern Virginia, surrounded by poverty, religious fundamentalism, and expectations about what a young woman could and couldn’t become.

She worked at Subway. She attended community college. She nearly married a man who wanted to control her future. And then, against extraordinary odds, she found her way to Harvard.

For me the happy ending from a hard life and not altogether uplifting story was her finding the love of writing which really set her free.