Welcome to Unstyled. I'm your host, Christine Barberick, co-founder and global editor-in-chief of Refinery 29.

Each week, I invite a notable person to come in and talk with us as we explore the funny, inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love, as told through the things that we wear.

In the spring of 2015, Hanya Yana Gihara published her second novel, A Little Life.

It was a heavy book in every sense of the word, a lush and shattering tale of trauma, more than 700 pages long.

No one expected it to sell more than a couple thousand copies.

Instead, a little life exploded onto the literary scene, becoming one of the year's most celebrated books.

It was everywhere, and you couldn't ride the New York subway without seeing the novel's arresting trademark cover photo.

What you wouldn't see anywhere in or on the book was a photo of the author, nor could you find Hanya on Facebook or Twitter.

Readers were dying to know the woman behind the astonishing story, but Hanya wasn't

interested in celebrity. At the height of her book's surprise success, Hanya did something even more

shocking. She went back to her day job. Hanya has been working in magazines for 16 years, writing

fiction during her off hours, And after a little life, people

expected her to do what hot-shot bestselling authors do. Build on her fame, turn the book into a

movie, then write another bestseller, ASAP. Instead, Hanja returned to the magazine world, albeit

with a pretty big promotion. In 2017, Hanya became editor-in-chief of

T, the New York Times Style magazine. Literary elites raised eyebrows, wondering why she chose

a fashion publication. Hanya scoffs at such snobbery. Art and culture are of crucial importance,

she argues, especially at this point in history.

In her first year, Hanya led a massive overhaul of the magazine, banning writers who turned in fluff and insisting on in-depth reporting from her staff.

Whether it's a detailed retrospective on the AIDS crisis or a perfectly simple trend piece on printed scarves,

Hanya summons a life force, not simply a story.

She believes in the rigors of classical journalism, but she's also a friend to the digital age.

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