About the Author

Maria Youngkin is a teacher, traveler, and storyteller based in Arizona. She writes at the intersection of memory and place—where a country’s history meets a family’s living story. Her debut travel memoir follows a father and daughter across Poland nearly four decades after his departure, tracing how language, landmarks, and everyday moments can reopen the past and reshape the present.

Maria’s classroom work informs her pages: clarity, curiosity, and a respect for what learning looks like in real time. She’s drawn to museums, city squares, and the small details—street names, recipes, church bells—that turn travel from a checklist into a conversation. On the page and off, she’s interested in how we inherit stories, how we carry them, and how we pass them on with care.