I was born on May 27, 1993 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. I moved to the US alone when I was eighteen years old. This was made possible with the assistance of my amazing mother—Salomé Aba, a basketball scholarship I received from Lighthouse Christian School in Antioch, TN, and my incredible host family (Ms. Baker and Mr. & Mrs. Wharton). I attended John Brown University in Arkansas and Wiley College in Texas for a handful of semesters. I eventually graduated from Graceland University, Iowa in 2017.

Although I was very passionate about basketball, which thankfully allowed me to fund the majority of my higher education, my first love has always been writing. As a child, when asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I always answered: “une écrivaine”—a writer.

However life kept happening, as it does; and I strayed further and further away from my passion for writing. After over a decade of soul searching, I reconnected with my love of written storytelling in my debut novel: Across Both Sides of the Mirror.

I originally imagined this story when I was in my early teens. Back then, it was a way for me to journal. Over a decade later, I was able to flesh out this novel’s concept to tell Nova’s story. Admittedly, writing this book was very therapeutic for me as well. Just like Nova, I was faced with a decision: continue to be a bystander in my own life story or take control of my reality. I chose the latter. But will Nova?