Harvard Author Spotlight: For Nicole Austen ’25, Writing is a Homecoming

Author and Harvard student Nicole Austen ’25 with her book, “Black Magic.” While other teenagers have diaries or an archive of Instagram stories to commemorate their childhood, Nicole P. Austen ’25 has a published book. “Black Magic,” which Austen started writing when she was 13, was published last August. As the first book of her children’s series “Shadow of the Pack,” “Black Magic” follows the magical adventures of a wolf pack. Growing up in Los Angeles, Austen was an avid reader who would “always have a giant book on [her] desk.” She described reading the “Warriors” and “Guardians of Ga’Hoole” series as a child, and how she did not want to stop at merely reading these books — she wanted to write them. “I just really enjoyed being able to do what the authors I loved did with words,” she said. “I just loved words and playing around with them and making sentences that just felt right or that surprised me. There was something really satisfying about it.” Books weren’t the only thing that inspired her. The setting of “Black Magic” was inspired by the nature she grew up surrounded with. “My family likes to go on vacation in Portland, Oregon and hike up there,” she said. “I sort of absorbed the woods and then put them in the book.” Austen’s family encouraged her early writing efforts, recognizing it as a worthwhile hobby they wanted to support. Her family, in fact, were the first people to buy her books. […]

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