Pandemic Writing Project Authors

Diane Chiang

diane chiang

Diane Chiang is a Taiwanese-American writer who grew up feasting on cheap Chinese food in the 626 suburbs of LA. Based in Seattle, she’s constantly hunting down food and travel stories to share on her site, The Gastrotourist.

Andrew Hirss

andrew hirss

Having recently retired to Missoula, Montana, Andrew splits his time between work on completing his memoir and old-world crafts projects for his new business as “Missoula’s Artisan at Large.”  His writing has most recently been published online at Potato Soup Journal. When not writing or re-upholstering antique furniture, Andrew can be found reading a book or watching the Clark Fork River flow by from his living room window with one of his three cats curled up in his lap. Visit freedomfrommypast.com to read his blog.

Sophia N. Lee

sophia lee

Sophia N. Lee wanted to be many things growing up: doctor, teacher, international spy, time traveler, journalist, and lawyer. She likes to think she can be all these things and more through writing. She writes books for kids and kids at heart. Her first book, What Things Mean (Scholastic Asia, 2016), won Grand Prize at the 2014 Scholastic Asian Book Awards. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School in New York City, and works as a creative writing instructor for kids, teens, and sometimes, grownups too. Follow her online everywhere @sophianleewrites.

Marc Moss

marc moss

Tell Us Something Executive Director Marc Moss was professionally trained as an English educator, certified in 1995 to teach English 7-12 in the state of Ohio.

Marc settled in Missoula in 2003 by way of Yellowstone National Park where he was a park ranger for 7 seasons.

Marc has been cultivating personal storytelling in Missoula since 2011 with the popular storytelling program Tell Us Something. He brings his expertise in storytelling to recruiting storytellers and to the story coaching workshops that he requires of each storyteller before each Tell Us Something event. He lives with his wife Joyce & their kitten Ziggy on Missoula's Northside.

Nicole Antoinette Smith

Nicole Antoinette Smith is a full-time assistant professor of instruction at Ohio University in the College of Business, teaching data analytics, information systems, and project management courses. She is also a contributing writer for the Online Master's in Business Analytics Blog at Ohio University. And, a part-time instructor at the University of the Virgin Islands Online. In addition, she taught graduate-level courses as an Adjunct Professor at DeVry’s Keller Graduate School of Management. She specializes in data strategy, strategic planning, process improvement, program development, and project management. Nicole Antoinette provides management consulting services under her company (Nicole Antoinette Consulting) using seven proprietary business methodologies, including her trademarked data strategy methodology, dataFonomics to help clients look at the anatomy of operations, enabling them to 1) leverage best practices from PAST experiences, 2) assess and optimize the PRESENT state of operations, and 3) visualize and secure the desired FUTURE state.

Nicole Antoinette is known as ‘A Catalyst for Change’ and is recognized as a perceptive leader with demonstrated ability to lead a diverse team of professionals. She has strong leadership qualifications in management and planning, developing processes, building high-performance teams, developing frameworks and methodologies, and managing innovation.  She launched Nicole Antoinette Consulting in April 2016 after working 25 years in corporate America and owns Faith Books & MORE Publishing (a subsidiary of Nicole Antoinette Publishing). To date, Nicole Antoinette has published ten of her books, with over twenty books in various forms of the writing and publishing process. In recent times, she worked as a Management Consultant on a project at the state of Georgia’s top technology university, a Fortune 500 company, several Atlanta-based companies, and on a federal contract.

Nicole Antoinette earned a Master of Science in Computer Information Systems from Missouri State University and Bachelor of Business Administration with dual majors in Management Information Systems and Marketing while playing basketball on a scholarship at Ohio University. Nicole Antoinette is the founder of the Sports Legends of Cleveland Metropolitan School District, a non-profit to revitalize the middle school and high school sports programs within the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and transform student-athletes into legendary student-athletes who can compete at the collegiate, professional, and international levels.

In 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nicole Antoinette launched two Pilot Programs as the founder of eleV8T™, a Workforce Development Implementation Model to create economic prosperity for individuals, businesses, and communities.  The model is an end-to-end program to train adult learners for the workplace by  targeting H3 jobs (highskill, high-wage, high-demand) and preparation for a career that leads to industry-recognized credentials. eleV8T™ is not a “one and done” initiative to train adult learners. It is a program with an ongoing process of educating and empowering adult learners through career progression.

Ness White

ness white

Ness White is half of Nia & Ness, a Black, out-Lesbian couple and performance art duo, whose work serves as a visual-auditory diary of their daily lives. They believe that it’s necessary for their specific stories, as Black Lesbian Women, to be shared, and it is their responsibility to share them.

Since officially starting their company in 2016, Nia & Ness have performed and given talks at theaters, festivals, conferences, schools, parks, bars, rooftops and homes nationwide. They are currently based in Rosendale, NY. Follow them on social media @niaandness.

Website: Nia & Ness