As a writer and as a human, Lauren Harkawik is preoccupied with how our understanding of ourselves is impacted by who we're in relationship with, where we are, and how we spend our energy. This curiosity culminates in the study of identity present throughout her work. She is also drawn to exploring interactions between the logical mundane, the unknown, and the unknowable.
Lauren is based in rural Vermont, in a town that has about 2,000 full-time residents, two lakes, two soft-serve ice cream stands, and two ski mountains. Its biggest shopping destination is a thrift store inside a former motel. Lauren grew up in a suburb of Albany, NY, in a town with three malls, seven soft-serve ice cream stands, and the biggest indoor roller skating rink in the world. Inside that rink was a dance club for children. It was called "Secrets."
In between the suburbs and the small town, Lauren studied English and then dramatic writing. She graduated with a BFA from the Conservatory of Theater Arts and Film at Purchase College. At Purchase, Lauren found a group of friends comprising fellow artists. It was magic. One of those friends was Garret, a filmmaker, whom she fell in love with. This, too, was magic. They have since built an entire life together. They have two children.
After Purchase, Lauren and Garret lived in Brooklyn. Lauren has an abiding love for the way the East River quietly laps the shore at the Brooklyn Bridge Park, the way it feels to walk up 7th Avenue in south Park Slope at dinnertime, and the way you can tell the train is about to arrive to the York Street station from the slight breeze that emanates from the station's tunnel. Lauren misses riding the New York City subway system the way some people miss the ocean, which is to say, "deeply."
Lauren was on an Amtrak train when she got the idea to move to Vermont. En route from Albany to Manhattan, she saw lights twinkling from cabins in the mountains and thought that seemed like the best way to let one's imagination run wild: move to the mountains, seek out bears and ghosts and luna moths. Following this whim, Lauren and Garret moved to Vermont in 2011.
Lauren has never seen a ghost. She’s sometimes comforted by the concept of them, but she is also afraid to see one. She's always thought that if she were to see one, it would most certainly be at night and in a kitchen. Lauren has seen many black bears. They, too, both comfort and scare her. Lauren has not seen a black bear in the kitchen, but that did happen to someone in her town, so it's within the realm of possibility. Each summer, Lauren sees at least one luna moth, for which she considers herself lucky.
Lauren wants you know every tiny bit of every cell of her being, even the mitochondria, and she also wants to be a little mysterious. Mostly, she wants you to know that some of the weird stuff you’ve thought or felt, she’s thought or felt too.