Meet One of Our Knight Authors: Alia Luria ’06

Tell us about yourself

I’m a novelist and humor essayist who practices privacy law by day and writes feverishly by night.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Apparently I always wanted to be one. I recently found an old diary that I had started writing a novel in. I don’t remember writing it at all. The first time I remember starting a novel was at 15 years old.

What’s your writing process? What inspires your writing?

My writing process depends on whether I’m writing fiction or non-fiction. I do a lot of free writing as part of my novel writing. When it comes to my humor essays, a lot of them are sparked by particular moments in time, and I build a story around the moment.

What was the biggest thing you learned during your time as a Knight that you apply to your life today?

That it’s never too late to be who you want to be. I enrolled at UCF after almost completely failing out of UF. I left school and worked as a software engineer for a bit before I enrolled determined to finish my education. I managed a 4.0 my entire time at UCF and raised my GPA enough to be accepted back to UF as a law student.

What was a class or club at UCF that helped you grow as a writer?

I didn’t major in English at UCF but I did study economics, and working on my undergraduate honors thesis was a huge motivator to me. After I graduated, a German publishing house published my thesis as a standalone book, and that definitely helped me grow as a writer.

Who are some of your favorite authors or books?

My favorite authors are Margaret Atwood, Ursula K Le Guin, Octavia Butler, and many more. A recent favorite of mine is Kelly Barnhill’s When Women Were Dragons. I also admire David Sedaris who has been extremely influential to me as a humorist.

If UCF had a time machine, what moment on campus would you go back to?

I would probably join a writing club or other group and study more literature if I could go back. I ultimately got my MFA but took too long of a hiatus from creative writing.

If your UCF experience were a meme, what would it be?

Old lady comes to school as a student and mothers a bunch of kids.

What are you currently working on right now?

I’m currently finishing up my second science fiction book, Ocularum, and working on a new essay collection coming in 2027 called Preposterous Bloodshed.