About Michelle

I'm Michelle Ciani, a writer living in Rome.

Raised in Chile, I've lived in seven countries and spent much of my life moving between languages, cultures, and ideas of home. These experiences find their way into my writing, where I return to questions of place, belonging, identity, and the making of a creative life.

I write personal essays and memoir. My first book, Spiral: A Season of Longing, Belonging, and Becoming, is a lyrical memoir coming in November 2026.

Photography is another part of my creative practice, it’s the way I notice the world around me. Here, I share my essays, reflections on the writing life, and the photographs that accompany my work.

You can also find my essays and reflections at Letters from Rome, where I share observations on life in Italy and the making of my books.

My First Book: Spiral

Told through journal entries, poems, and fragments, Spiral follows one season at home in Italy, from solstice to equinox. As ordinary days unfold alongside research into ancestry, questions of belonging, identity, and creativity arise.

Coming November 2026.

Person with gray hair and a white shirt, wearing a dark floral-patterned jacket, sitting against a plain background.