When Shafaq Khan joined a Bay Area authors group in 2019, she didn’t expect to find a fellow public interest lawyer, let alone one who shared her Stanford Law connection. “I didn’t know anyone,” Khan says. “I just wanted some writing support and was fortuitously paired with Stephanie.”

That pairing led to six years of monthly meetings, dozens of exchanged drafts, and now, two newly published books for young readers.

Khan is director of career development at Stanford Law’s Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law. Stephanie Wildman, JD ’73, BA ’70, professor emerita at Santa Clara University School of Law, once directed that school’s Center for Social Justice and Public Service. Together they’ve forged parallel paths as writers, drawing on their legal experience to tell stories grounded in the same values that shaped their careers.

This fall, both are celebrating major milestones. Wildman’s Story Power!, co-authored with her grandson, Simon, was published in October by Lawley Enterprises as the fourth installment in her “Flor, Roberto, and Luis” series of children’s books, each colorfully illustrated by Mexican artist Estefanía Razo. Story Power! invites young readers to discover the thrill of creating their own stories. Khan’s debut book, Zeyna Lost and Found, published in September by Lerner Books, follows a 12-year-old British-Pakistani girl on an adventure across continents to uncover her parents’ mysterious disappearance and her own sense of belonging.

Lawyers as storytellers

Both authors say they see their books as extensions of the same impulse that drew them to public interest law: giving voice to those who are too often unheard.

“Lawyers are storytellers,” says Khan, who spent a decade as a poverty law attorney in New York before coming to Stanford Law. “In public interest work, you learn how to build trust, center your client’s voice, and tell a human story that compels a judge or policymaker to see the person behind the case. Writing fiction draws on those same muscles – clarity, empathy, attention to language.”

Wildman agrees. “Every word matters,” she says. “That’s something I carried from my days as a law student at Stanford and then as a professor. Writing for children is a lot like writing poetry or a legal brief. You’re trying to communicate something essential in very few words.”

In addition to her six children’s titles, Wildman has authored or co-authored several scholarly books, including Race and Races: Cases and Resources for a Diverse America and Privilege Revealed: How Invisible Preference Undermines America. She recently had her first poem published in The Sunlight Press.

Legal training, human stories

Wildman began writing for children in 2018 with Brave in the Water, inspired by her grandchildren’s early struggles with learning to swim. Her books share gentle themes of resilience, self-expression, and inclusion.

Her latest book introduced a new collaborator: her grandson Simon, who, at age 7, announced he had “an idea for another Flor, Roberto, and Luis story.”

“He said, ‘They’re bored, and they should write a story,’” Wildman recalls. “So it became a story within a story – about discovering the joy of storytelling itself.”

The book doubles as a creative guide, including exercises to help children learn to express themselves through storytelling. Wildman hopes her book will find a home not just in bedtime routines but in classrooms, where it can inspire young writers.

For Khan, Zeyna Lost and Found was inspired by an oft-told family story: her mother-in-law’s childhood journey from Pakistan to London in the 1970s, after flights were grounded and the family traveled by road through Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey. That seed grew into an adventure novel, targeted to “middle grade” readers of 8-13, rich with cultural detail and emotional depth.

“The trip fascinated me,” Khan says. “But I didn’t want to write a travelogue. I wanted a mystery that also explored identity, how a child straddling two cultures learns that being shaped by both doesn’t mean she belongs nowhere.”

Khan’s lawyerly thoroughness came through in her research: she pored over travel diaries, photographs, and maps from the so-called “hippie trail” era, drawing from both primary and secondary sources to create an authentic historical setting.

The power of collaboration

The authors’ critique group, which includes four other women writers, was a strong foundation for both authors’ success.

“When you’re a lawyer, getting feedback often feels high-stakes – you’re being graded or judged,” Khan says. “But in our group, feedback is about growth. It’s supportive, not evaluative.”

Wildman agrees: “It’s not just about editing each other’s sentences. It’s about accountability, about showing up with whatever you’ve written and knowing someone cares enough to read it. Writing can be isolating. This group keeps me grounded.”

When Khan held a recent book signing at Barnes & Noble, Wildman was there to cheer her on.

“If everyone else dropped out, it would still be me and Shafaq,” Wildman said. “We’d find new members and keep going. We started out just as fellow writers. Now we are family.”