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About Talia

Talia Franks

Talia reading a book
Photo: The Larson Lens

Talia Franks grew up wanting to be a professional polymath and at some point realized that was basically code for nerd.

Talia likes their feminism intersectional and their entertainment diverse, and they created Word-for-Sense to share their thoughts about fandom, philosophy, paganism, writing & social justice.

Talia is a graduate of Brandeis University and holds a master of arts in comparative humanities, their studies focusing in the realms of language, critical race theory, fandom, and religion. They are also an alum of the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference and of the Columbia Publishing Course.

An active and critical participant in the Doctor Who, Marvel, and Percy Jackson fandoms, they’ve written multiple articles for Black Nerds Create, Cambridge Day and Nerdist in addition to their writing here on Word-for-Sense.

They’ve also written reviews of poetry and prose in translation for Three Percent, a resource for international literature at the University of Rochester, and their poetry and translations have appeared in Mass Poetry’s The Hard Work of Hope, the Brandeis University publications Jaded and Ebony Axis, and they are a contributor to These Bewitching Bonds: A Black Girls Create Anthology and Adventures Across Space and Time.

Currently, Talia is conducting freelance contract work while seeking a full-time position. They are also a co-host of and the executive producer for The Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Podcast.

When not reading, writing, podcasting, or translating Talia enjoys hiking, meditation, spending time with friends and family, indexing their personal library, and trying to find more time in their schedule to read.

You can find Talia on Instagram and Twitter and Threads as @talia_franks and on TikTok as @taliafranks. If you’d like to support Talia you can kindly do so via CashAppPayPalVenmoKo-fi or Patreon.

10 Fun Facts about Talia

  1. Talia owns over 1000 physical books, 2200 ebooks, and 90 audiobooks. They also have over 300 epubs of various fanfiction downloaded to their computer and e-reader
  2. Talia has only read about 25% of their library because they want to make sure they never run out of new books to read on rainy days
  3. Talia has at least twenty tattoos and six piercings (though they rarely bother to count)
  4. Talia is (mostly) a vegetarian
  5. Talia listens to podcasts at 3x speed
  6. Talia is unsure if they have a circadian rhythm because as long as they aren’t working they are as likely to be asleep or awake at all hours of the day and night, whether it be 6am or 6pm
  7. Talia has a Goodreads author account
  8. Talia has a Master’s degree and credits their daily lattes containing 4 shots of espresso with much of their success
  9. Talia has an extensive mug collection including mugs such as “running on coffee and glitter,” “ask me about my pronouns,” “homebody,” “let the adventure begin,” and “celebrate the small victories.”
  10. Talia took three different language classes in high school (Spanish, Italian, and Mandarin) and two in college (Spanish and Ancient Greek) where they also spent a semester studying the linguistic typology of Welsh. They also audited an online Latin course at the Harvard Extension School and have been learning French and German on duolingo.