Hannah Hess
Bio
A grad student trying to save the world, one species at a time.
While I study ecology, evolution, and conservation biology, I have a deep love writing about my family, pets, and life outside of academia. My stories are a bit of a mixed bag!
Achievements (6)
Stories (15)
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Breath: A Series of Sonnets
The following sonnets form a small series on breath — the most ordinary, involuntary act, yet also the most profound. Breath is how life begins and how it ends. Breath is love's music: nervous inhales before professions and confessions., the lingering echo of loss. And breath is identity: the struggle to draw air in a body that feels foreign, and the liberation of exhaling truth in one's own voice.
By Hannah Hess3 months ago in Poets
I Didn't Write This For You To Read. Honorable Mention in The Metamorphosis of the Mind Challenge.
I don’t usually share my writing with people I know. It’s not that I’m ashamed of what I write—it’s just that the moment you let someone in, especially someone from your real life, everything feels a little more… exposed. I worry people will read into things. That they’ll recognize themselves in a sentence. And that if they do, they'll be hurt or feel uncomfortable. Or they’ll decide that something isn’t “true enough.” Or maybe they’ll just think it’s bad.
By Hannah Hess9 months ago in Psyche
Trapped in Silence: How Writing Freed Me—and My Late Grandmother
She sat beside me at the Thanksgiving table. Her hands reached for the mashed potatoes. She carefully picked out only the white meat from the plate of turkey, laid it neatly on her plate, and poured my mom’s homemade gravy on top. Her white cardigan was buttoned just right. Her hair was curled in the way it had been when I was a child— back when she would get it permed, before she lost her hair to breast cancer. Her body breathed, blinked, swallowed. Everything about her looked like her.
By Hannah Hess9 months ago in Psyche
How Lying Got Me Into Columbia University. First Place in Self-Editing Epiphany Challenge.
The following essay explores my self-editing process for the personal statement that got me into Columbia University. But getting in wasn’t the hardest part—telling the truth was.
By Hannah Hess10 months ago in Critique
Auditing Thax Phrod: Do Not Attempt To Itemize This Story
Thax Phrod believed three things with absolute certainty: The IRS is just Scientology for numbers people. No one alive truly understands what a deductible is—not even the IRS. If you ignore your taxes long enough, they’ll go away. (Spoiler alert: they don’t.)
By Hannah Hess10 months ago in Humor
Captured in a Photo, Held in my Heart. First Place in Through the Lens Challenge.
How do you capture the love of a grandmother? It has been just over three years since my Nana passed, and this is a question that lingers in my mind, as persistent as the memories of her.
By Hannah Hess12 months ago in Photography
