Hello there! My name is Kaile Hultner, and this is my new personal website and blog-thing. You may know me already as a freelancer whose work has appeared in the Oklahoma Gazette or PC Gamer or Bullet Points Monthly; it’s possible you know me as the Social Curator for Critical Distance or the editor at large and in chief of No Escape. Maybe you’ve run into me in a variety of other contexts, or you may not know me at all!
I’ve worn a lot of hats since 2011, including student journalist and columnist; fellow, then senior fellow and then finally media coordinator at the Center for a Stateless Society; gas station night clerk; mobile sales at Best Buy; call center associate and trainer; and semiprofessional shitposter. Through it all I have been writing, and this massive archive is what I have to show for it.
It’s not complete yet; there are gaps that I’m still trying to fill (manually, painstakingly, tediously…) and work that still needs to be done. But even as that’s the case, it’s still a mostly-unbroken body of work that represents who I am, where I’ve been and what I’ve been thinking about across 15 whole years.
I’ve tried to keep the work separate by labeling each piece or excerpt as either “Personal Writing” or “Professional Writing.” For most of my freelance work the posts will be truncated with links back to their original posts on the websites that commissioned me. This is also true for the work I’ve done for Critical Distance that appears here. When it comes to personal writing I’ve tried my best to separate the myriad posts out by the platforms I originally posted them on.
There will also be some things that markedly do not appear here, namely, the ongoing work at No Escape. There are two reasons for this: first, I think my work at No Escape stands alone and speaks for itself, and second, I thought it would be extremely confusing if I ported all those posts over here, even though it would result in a more “complete” archive. It just makes more sense to keep things separate for now.
Why Make a Personal Site?
If you asked me this question two weeks ago when I initially spun it up, I would’ve simply told you that it was for “posterity’s sake.” Initially I just wanted a static place to set and forget and occasionally update as I slowly accrued more freelance work. As I’ve undertaken the task of bringing all of my writing under one roof I realize how convenient it is for me to have all of this stuff to-hand, that is, easily citable in a format that looks nice. And then, to top it all off, I found out some fun news last week and realized it would be highly prudent of me to make a personal site with more than just a couple links on it.
So now this has evolved into my portfolio, archive, resume and personal blog where stuff I want to write that doesn’t necessarily fit with No Escape can have a home. If You Know Me From No Escape, please trust: I am not going anywhere. That site is my baby and I plan to keep it alive far into the foreseeable future. If you don’t know me from over there, though: this is the best place to get to know me. Thank you for stopping by. And please enjoy the old stuff! That’s what it’s there for anyway.
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