Local writer Aar-Yana Willis published her first book a little less than a year ago, and since then it’s been featured on shelves at Ujamaa Community Bookstore, Midwest Leak and even in the BUTTER 5 shop.

The Recorder sat down with Willis to learn more about her debut children’s book, “I Love You This Much and All,” and what inspired her to take the leap into self-publishing. 

Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your background? How did you get into writing?

Aar-Yana Willis: I had the pleasure of working with youth over the years, and with that, I found that I used to journal as a child and do a lot of different journaling about how I was feeling or what’s going on in life, and did a lot of poetry. So, taking two loves — working w

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