Over the next few months, we’ll be spotlighting the brilliant young authors of the Creative Youth Collective. Alongside introductions, we’ll share short interviews with each writer about their current work, creative practice, and advice for other young authors. To inaugurate this series, we are thrilled to introduce Raya Ilieva, a new member of the Collective and the recipient of our full fall 2026 Studio II scholarship.
Raya is a seventeen-year-old writer from the San Francisco Bay Area. A junior at The Nueva School, she also participated in the 2026 Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. She loves to read and write literary fiction, especially short stories; when not writing, she can be found dancing, hiking, or exploring cities.
We were immediately drawn to Raya’s work because of the complexity of her themes, her commitment to her creative practice, and her evident passion for—and belief in—the art of the story. Raya uses realistic fiction to explore the contradictions and ambiguities of everyday lived experience. Attending closely to interpersonal dynamics, questions of identity, and the malleability of memory, she excels at using lucid prose to communicate what lies just beyond the reach of language. In Raya’s work, although words may at times fail her characters, bodies reveal themselves as archives of experience and speak with an intimacy that is at once vulnerable and powerful.
We asked Raya to tell us a bit more about what being a writer means to her.
What are you working on at the moment, and what keeps drawing you back to it?
I am currently working on the third story in a collection, which centers around two cousins, their extended family, and a very messy secret. It is in the early stages, but I continue to be drawn to it because I am intrigued by the dynamics of large families and the ways in which we sometimes know the people closest to us the least.
What is something you’re experimenting with—or beginning to notice—in your writing through Studio II?
With the wonderful guidance of Joshua, I have been experimenting with the language of embodiment—how to best portray physical sensations through language, how to ground characters in the unique physical worlds they inhabit, and how to deepen relationships by examining how a character’s physicality or even their experience of the world changes when they are around someone else.
What advice would you give other young writers?
Read all the time and read everything! The only way to hone your taste, discover the traditions you are writing from, and ultimately find your own unique voice is to read and analyze anything you can get your hands on. But don’t use reading as an excuse not to write; create a practice whereby your reading and writing feed each other.
We would also like to remind you that Lit Crawl is coming up next weekend! Raya will be reading an excerpt from her current work, along with four other members of the CYC: Amruth Settipalli, Millie Lynch, Daria Roshan Eisner, and Kajsa Hirshberg.
Please join us for an evening of original fiction and conversation about writing, worldbuilding, and what it means to commit to a creative practice. Through readings of their works in progress and interactive discussion, five of our young authors (ages 12–17) will explore questions of meaning, identity, and creativity—and reflect on how to shape both self and world through writing.
The Creative Youth Collective Presents: Building Worlds and Shaping Futures
Saturday, October 24, 2026 · 6:30–7:30 p.m.
Dog Eared Books · 900 Valencia Street, San Francisco
Please share this invitation with anyone you know who might be interested in attending and supporting our authors! You can find copy-ready event text, along with links to an e-poster and a print-quality poster right here. We’re so grateful for your help in spreading the word.
We hope to see you at Dog Eared Books next weekend!
Warmly,
Kathryn & Joshua
Co-founders, Creative Youth Collective