Esther Ra is a writer, illustrator, and spoken word performer who alternates between the United States and her home in Seoul, South Korea. Esther is a J.D. candidate at Stanford Law School and the author of A Glossary of Light and Shadow (2023), winner of the Diode Full-Length Book Contest, and book of untranslatable things (2018), winner of the Grayson Books Chapbook Contest. She is also the founding editor of The Underwater Railroad, a literary unification project. Her work has received numerous awards, including the Pushcart Prize, the 49th Parallel Award, the Sweet Lit Poetry Prize, the Vineyard Literary Prize, and the Women Writing War Poetry Award, among others. Esther often incorporates elements of polyphonic narrative, Korean history, and peace-building in her performances, and has given readings at venues including the University of Oxford, Humanity in Action, UCLA, USC, and California State University, San Bernardino. Esther is always on the search for beauty, whether in city lights or the deep lightness of spring. The ocean never fails to move her to tears. And, of course, she loves to write.