Born amid the ceaseless energy of New York City, Persia Walker found her first sanctuary in a cocoon of asthma-induced stillness. Books and chocolate chip cookies weren’t just comforts; they were lifelines. Meanwhile, black-and-white films from the 1940s whispered of a world beyond her four walls, filling her imagination with smoky bars and femmes fatales.

The stage called her next. A star turn in the drama department of New York City’s famed High School of Performing Arts segued into a scholarship at Swarthmore College. There, she plunged into the mysteries of Comparative Religion and the intricacies of Black Anthropology. After graduation, she returned to her hometown and earned a master’s from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Journalism brought her voice to the world. From the American heartlands to the power corridors of Washington, DC, her byline graced the pages of The Associated Press. A career pivot took her to Munich with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She became a witness to history, watching the Berlin Wall crumble beneath the weight of collective yearning for freedom. When RFE moved east, she stayed put, freelancing and voicing stories from one of the cultural capitals of Europe.

Munich was where she also answered the call to write her first novel. It led her to her wonderful then-agent, Julie Castiglia—a silver lining that would later pay off. She began work on a second novel. However, life had other plans. A diagnosis of Stage II breast cancer forced her to pause, but it couldn’t silence her. Emerging cancer-free, she returned to her unfinished novel, finally selling it to Simon & Schuster.

By the waning months of 2003, she was back in the New York hustle, a single mother juggling life and survival jobs. It wasn’t until 2011 that stability when she joined the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer. Posts in Sao Paulo and Warsaw filled her diplomatic passport before she opted for retirement in 2022, settling in France to revive her love affair with writing novels.

Now, she’s a professional nomad with ink in her veins, yearning for a permanent address. When not writing, she’s likely savoring the tranquility of Provence, getting lost in the jazz rhythms of Paris, or exploring the rich tapestries of Amsterdam’s museums. Podcasts and audiobooks are her companions, filling her mind with stories as she plots the next chapter of her own.