NICOLE PANTELEAKOS

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Middle Grade Author & Playwright

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Nicole Panteleakos is an author, playwright, thespian, and Ravenclaw.

 

Her debut novel, PLANET EARTH IS BLUE (Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House) was released on May 14, 2019, with a second middle grade novel to follow in 2020. She is represented by agent Katie Grimm at Don Congdon Associates and belongs to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators: Metro NY. She is also a regular contributor to Nanny Magazine, a sensitivity/authenticity reader, and a 2018/2019 #PitchWars Mentor (mentee class of 2016!). Nicole graduated from ESCU with a degree in theatre scriptwriting and is currently working toward her Masters of Fine Arts in Children's Literature at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA with the hope of graduating in May, 2020.  

 

Planet Earth is Blue has earned 3 starred reviews (Kirkus, Booklist, School Library Journal), and is a 2020 Charlotte Huck Award Recommended Book, a Parents' Choice Foundation Gold Award winner, and on Kirkus' and the New York Public Library's Best Middle Grade Books of 2019 lists, among other distinctions. 

 

Outside of writing, Nicole is a Lifetime Member of the VFW Auxiliary and National Home for Children and on the Board of Directors at her favorite community theatre. She names her cats after authors - Shakespeare, Dickens, Beckett, (Mary) Shelley, and Poe - and can usually be found reading fanfiction, traveling, swimming, playing board games with the kids, or adding to her Alice in Wonderland coffee cup collection.

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