Bella Pollen
US Board Member
Bella Pollen is a writer and journalist who has contributed to various publications including The Financial Times, Vogue and the Economist. She first visited Afghanistan in 2013 with fellow team member Christa and has been actively involved with the school ever since.
Founder of international fashion label , Arabella Pollen at the age of 19, Pollen was nominated for numerous awards during her thirteen years in the industry.
Author of five novels she has tackled a broad spectrum of topics from the decline of the Aristocracy in the best-selling Hunting Unicorns to the Mexican border in Midnight Cactus to the Cold war in the critically acclaimed The Summer of the Bear.
Pollen works one to one with both young writers and established authors. She is a fellow of VCCA in the US, Moulin à Nèf, France, and The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland.
Her recently published memoir, Meet Me In the In-Between, a part-graphic memoir about the author’s search for home has been described as 'disturbing, very funny , visually stunning and full of moving profundities.'
In 2024 She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Mariupol, Ukraine.`