Nikki Loftin lives with her Scottish photographer husband just outside Austin, Texas, surrounded by dogs, chickens, goats, and rambunctious boys. She is the author of the multiply starred-reviewed Nightingale’s Nest and The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy, which Publisher’s Weekly called “mesmerizing” and Kirkus called “irresistible.” Her latest novel, Wish Girl, was published on February 24, 2015, and will be translated into Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and French.
Nikki Loftin is the author of three middle grade novels, all published by Razorbill/Penguin. THE SINISTER SWEETNESS OF SPLENDID ACADEMY (2012) which Publishers Weekly called “a mesmerizing read,” and Kirkus Reviews called “deliciously scary and satisfying,” was the winner of the 2013 Writer’s League of Texas Book Award and was listed for Oklahoma’s 2014 Sequoyah Book Award and the Florida Association for Media in Education’s 2016-2017 Sunshine State Young Readers Award. Her second novel, NIGHTINGALE’S NEST (2014), received starred reviews from Kirkus and the Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books, and was singled out by the Children’s Literacy Foundation as the middle grade “Next Great Book” of 2014. Nightingale’s Nest won both the Writer’s League of Texas and the Texas Institute of Letters Best Children’s Book Awards for 2014. It will soon be published in Portuguese by Editora Bertrand in Brazil, and in Chinese by Guangxi Normal University Press Group Co., Ltd.
Nikki’s third book, WISH GIRL, was published in February 2015. Foreign rights have been sold in Brazil, Italy, Japan, Spain, France, Portugal, and China. In 2016, Wish Girl was selected as “the Great Read For Texas” by the Texas Center for the Book in conjunction with the National Book Festival and the Library of Congress. Wish Girl was also a MG/YA finalist in the 2015 Writer’s League of Texas Book Awards.
Nikki’s short children’s fiction has appeared in Boy’s Life and Pockets magazines, among others. She also writes literary fiction, poetry, and essays for adults, and has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves, and the Guys Read: Terrifying Tales anthology. Nikki is an active member of the Austin SCBWI and the Writer’s League of Texas.
Nikki attended the University of Texas at Austin for both her BA (French, ‘92), and MA (English – Fiction Writing, ’98). She speaks conversational French and limited Spanish, and has spent most of her professional life working with children and young adults. After teaching in the New Braunfels Independent School District as a Music and Gifted and Talented teacher, she pursued a career as a Director of Family Ministries at Presbyterian churches. She loves public speaking and has served as keynote speaker for regional writing organizations and library conferences, and presented at schools as far away as Tokyo, Japan.
A native Texan, Nikki lives near Austin with her husband (a Scottish photographer), two sons, and an assortment of goats, dogs, and chickens. Currently, Nikki writes full-time, with occasional breaks for tea, chocolate, and singing to her goats. She volunteers with the local 4-H club and at her own children’s schools in the classrooms and libraries, and teaches middle school Sunday School every week. When under extreme stress, or on submission with a novel, she bakes obsessively as a coping technique.