Ekta Daryani

Ekta Daryani is a Pakistani-American writer and poet based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work emphasizes the meaningfulness of connection, and how community has the power to heal. In simpler terms, she believes in the power of the love that arises from vulnerability, often found in the written word.

She has performed her poetry at various events throughout the Bay Area and in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work from childhood originally appeared in her 2016 chapbook, Kaleidoscopic Skies, before she moved on to publish Heart (2021) and Aren't You Still Here? (2026).

Aren't You Still Here? (2026)

By writer and poet Ekta Daryani, Aren't You Still Here? is a collection of 20 poems that explore what it means to move through life. Each poem roams through experiences such as love, loss, longing, friendship, and change. Doesn't the very existence of these things mean that you are alive? Despite the fact that life never really goes the way you think it will, you are still here.

Heart (2021)

By writer and poet Ekta Daryani, Heart is a collection of twenty-three poems detailing the concept of growth and love. Poems follow the poet through the ideas of love leading way to connection and the idea that growth is never linear. Heart is ultimately an ode to people and the beautiful way in which we never let each other go.