Writing Coach
Nina Li Coomes is a Japanese and American writer and essayist. She writes about food, family, and film, and is currently at work on a novel of speculative climate fiction.
Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Guernica, and Catapult, among other places. In 2018 she was an Aspen Summer Words Fellow in Memoir, in 2019 a Tin House Scholar, and in 2022 was awarded a residency at Hedgebrook. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, a Chicago Review of Books Award, a James Beard Award, and was listed as a Notable Mention in Best American Travel Writing 2020. In 2022, her essay on ramen and silent dining was included by Sohla El-Waylly in Best American Food Writing.
Nina currently teaches at Loyola University, and has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Story Studio, and Catapult. As an instructor, she cares deeply about helping writers protect their creativity and use their voice to tell the stories that matter most to them.