Ariel Sophia Bardi is a writer and researcher. Born in Japan, raised in the US and UK, she currently lives in Rome. She has a Ph.D. from Yale University and has reported as a journalist from Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Armenia, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Israel and the West Bank. Her dispatches and photography have been published in Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, LA Review of Books, Columbia Journalism Review, Slate, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and many other publications. She is a 2021 fellow in the Logan Nonfiction and Documentary program.
The family gave me objects to put under the blankets, to keep me warm. They gave me a wicker basket filled with hot coals. They gave me an orange cat. Their garden was barren except for yellow winter roses. When I walked toward the house, I would quicken my pace, trying to get out…
