Michelle Chikoanda

Michelle Chikaonda

Contributor

BSR Contributor Since April 12, 2020

Michelle Chikaonda (she/her pronouns) is an essayist from Blantyre, Malawi, currently living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has current and forthcoming work at The Globe and Mail, Modern Loss, Catapult, Hobart, and Al Jazeera English, among others.

Michelle Chikaonda is a nonfiction writer from Blantyre, Malawi, currently living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has won the Literary Award for Narrative Nonfiction of the Tucson Festival of Books, the Stephen J. Meringoff Award for Nonfiction of the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics and Writers, and the Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Scholarship for writers of color from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. In addition to being a 2019 resident at The Seventh Wave’s Rhinebeck Residency, she is a VONA fellow, a Tin House Summer Workshop alumna, and a Pushcart prize nominee. She has current and forthcoming work at The Globe and Mail, Modern Loss, Catapult, Hobart, and Al Jazeera English, among others.

By this Author

7 results
Page 1
What could we change if we applied our intention to it? Kyle Allen and Kathryn Newton in ‘The Map of Tiny Perfect Things.’ (Image courtesy of Amazon Studios.)

What can ‘Naked’ and ‘Map of Tiny Perfect Things’ teach us about unsticking our lives?

Time to deconstruct determinism
When Michelle Chikaonda continued her very own pandemic festival of time-loop movies, she found out that the phrase “it’s time” has more than one meaning.
Michelle Chikaonda

Michelle Chikaonda

Essays 5 minute read
Unflappable in the face of the same day: Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti as Nyles and Sarah in Hulu’s ‘Palm Springs.’ (Image courtesy of Hulu.)

What can ‘Palm Springs’ and ‘Groundhog Day’ teach us about surviving the sameness of pandemic life?

Riding the stay-home wave
It was easier to keep spirits up at the start of the pandemic shutdown, when we thought the disruption would be short. Nine months later, Michelle Chikaonda finds unexpected help in two movies about time loops.
Michelle Chikaonda

Michelle Chikaonda

Essays 6 minute read
A class of distance-learning youngsters enjoy a virtual session with Mighty Writers. (Image courtesy of Mighty Writers.)

When conspiracies aren’t theories: what is COVID teaching the next generation?

Living conspiracies, teaching truth
In a class on combatting conspiracy theories and misinformation in the era of COVID-19, I teach teenagers to recognize dangerous distractions from reality. But what about the conspiracies that materially affect their lives?
Michelle Chikaonda

Michelle Chikaonda

Essays 5 minute read
Chikaonda Mlotho Malawi BSR 4 12 20

Instead of distracting ourselves, what happens when we grasp our new reality?

The only way out is through
One of the most challenging things in the COVID-19 pandemic is trying to be okay when everything around us is not. After facing her own grief, Michelle Chikaonda finds that rather than merely managing the disorientation, we can lean directly into it.
Michelle Chikaonda

Michelle Chikaonda

Essays 5 minute read
Two male cast members, in splendid blue 18th-century coats, face each other onstage. One has a quill in his outstretched hand

Surviving New Year’s 2022 means finding the story that’s true for you

What Washington knew
This year, Michelle Chikaonda marked the anniversary of her father’s passing with a trip to see Hamilton in Philly, which reminded her that we can’t control life’s chaos—but we can find the right story.
Michelle Chikaonda

Michelle Chikaonda

Essays 6 minute read
A photo from inside a scenic mountain cave in Puerto Rico, showing two people in silhouette in front of a grand tropical view

What happens when you’re living a story that someone else handed you?

Who’s really telling your story?
The painful end of a long friendship helped teach Michelle Chikaonda about the power of owning her own story—thanks also to a return to another favorite Hamilton song.
Michelle Chikaonda

Michelle Chikaonda

Essays 5 minute read
Infrared NASA image of a spiral galaxy that looks like a swirling gauzy reddish disc with a shining white sphere at center

School reunions in a pandemic make us wonder what could have been, but are we looking in the wrong direction?

The universe inside
A pair of school reunions this year, plus emerging from the shutdowns of the pandemic, restarted Michelle Chikaonda’s habit of wondering who she would be in an alternate universe. But this time, something is different.
Michelle Chikaonda

Michelle Chikaonda

Essays 5 minute read