Hannah Rials

Hannah Rials is a senior creative writing major at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; she will be working on her MA at Bath Spa University, England this fall. Her first young adult novel Ascension was published in 2016 with the sequel to follow July 2018.

How to Be a Wall

No. 1 – Already Be a Wall Become a wall before it is necessary. I can’t instruct you on this because I was naïve. I thought, Let pain come; it’s a part of life. I thought being a wall was cold-hearted, and that I am not. But please learn from my mistakes. Being a wall isn’t being heartless. It’s just the smart thing to do. No. 2 – Remember the Pain This is the worst step—I’m sorry. But I have a feeling that if you’re reading this, you’re like me; you absorb words.