katiaraina

Forum role	Member since	Last activity	Topics created	Replies created
Member	Nov 23, 2009 (17 years)	-	1	0

Forum role: Member
Member since: Nov 23, 2009 (17 years)
Last activity: -
Topics created: 1
Replies created: 0

Bio

When I was a little girl, I wore a pioneer scarf around my neck and believed in communism. I also secretly believed in magic mirrors. Even as a shy little Soviet girl, I dreamed that across the magic glass someplace there was another land, one of skyscrapers reaching into the clouds, and giant bridges of steel that hung from the sky. I reached that land as a teen in 1993, when I stepped out of the JFK airport in New York City. I found my real home, met a man of my dreams, fell in love with the English language, moved into the Jersey suburbs, and got myself a beautiful, complicated American life. For a little while, I was a newspaper journalist and had quite an adventure chasing stories, keeping tabs on local officials, or just poking my nose everywhere it’d fit. Then I stayed home with my two children and learned how to write. After that, I started a whole new career teaching, and had THE best time with the next gen: reading, writing, learning, teaching, laughing, loving, dancing, singing, crying (let's be real, that was a part of it too). I taught in Camden, DC, Nashville, and now Seattle, from an alternative school to the most expensive private school in town, and then to a charter high school, supporting neurodivergent teens. Now, that chapter is closing, as well, and I'm on my way to my seventh state of Pennsylvania. When I look in the magic mirror today, the person looking back is a writer, a coach, a leader, a creative, a music lover, a full-time resident of a fairy tale. I am an author of Moonbeam-award winning novel CASTLE OF CONCRETE (Young Europe Books, Foreword Starred Review, 2019). I am here to revel in the wonder, the oneness and the weirdness that is us. And yes, I am working on the next thing.

katiaraina

katiaraina

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