"Hello! My name is Nikoletta (or Niki for short) and I am an award-nominated, published writer of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Maryland Baltimore County where in my senior year, I was awarded the Undergraduate Research Award (URA) to spend a summer in my native country of Albania to research my thesis of how communist censorship affected the country's growth of literary arts. In all the years since graduating, I have made storytelling my life.

Professionally, I have worked as a newsroom producer, a marketing director, and a copywriter and editor. I have years of experience working as both a creative writing coach and a manuscript editor. When I'm not working on other people's creative pursuits, I work on my own short fiction. My work has appeared in two anthologies and in various publications, both in print and digital. I have been previously nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau prize, the Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction. My work has also been both long and shortlisted for various awards and competitions.

I want to bring my passion for the English language, storytelling, and literacy comprehension to young people. Whether it's working through school essays, test prepping, or developing an editor/writer dynamic to work through creative writing pursuits, I want to make young people feel comfortable with and confident in what they write down on paper...and perhaps even read out loud to a room. I'm especially passionate about working with kids who have ESL experience. As a former ESL student myself (many, many years ago), I understand the challenges--and importance of--developing language skills that become the foundation of everything else in life. I like to keep things informal and fun and want, above all, for my students to enjoy what they are learning." less...