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Never one to shy away from controversy, Joyce Wambua Osborne often describes her life as a series of escape rooms. Not games or adventures, but seasons that required strategy, endurance and faith, she did not always recognise she possessed. As a young girl, she believed escape meant simply leaving difficult situations behind. Today, she understands something deeper.
“I thought I was running away,” she says of her nerve-racking life experiences. “But I was actually being prepared.”
What began as a personal writing project, a memoir and a platform for conversations about healing and self-discovery, has since grown into an award-recognised work. In 2026, it took second place in the Delaware Press Association’s Book Competition in the non-fiction, autobiography or memoir category.
Now, the Kenyan-American author is finding purpose and success in the pain of her past. Some seasons of life arrive quietly; others leave us changed forever.
