Grubbies

About Kayla

Kayla Degala-Paraíso (she/they) is a Los Angeles-based, Filipinx-American experimental writer with a B.A. in Creative Writing. Although a professional cross-genre dabbler, she has a special affection for fabulism, hybrid forms (especially prose poetry), and strange creative nonfiction (especially memoir). She prioritizes voice and feeling in her work. In her writing, she also often attempts to untangle messy entanglements, challenge conventions of craft, sucker-punch you in the gut. Her current projects focus on mental illness, chaotic sisters, and rabbits. Kayla publishes under "K. Degala-Paraíso". You can read her work in PANK, Okay Donkey, ANMLY, and elsewhere. Her work has received the Bea Matas Hollfelder Award, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. On teaching: Kayla is a teacher of creative writing and social change. She bases her writer-centered, participatory pedagogy in the popular education model of Myles Horton and the Highlander Folk School, the applied politics of bell hooks's "Toward a Revolutionary Feminist Pedagogy", and the principles of adrienne maree brown's "Emergent Strategy". As a disciple of Toni Morrison's "writing for the village" philosophy, she encourages fellow writers to embrace their authentic voice and storytelling style -- academia-based writing conventions be damned. In Kayla's classes, you can expect experimentation and play; adaptability; and deep conversation.