Nicole Mazzarella grew up in Ohio and writes with sensitivity and precision about rural, Midwestern life. Her first novel, This Heavy Silence, was selected by Leif Enger, author of Peace Like a River, as a finalist for the Paraclete Press Fiction Award of 2004, won the 2006 Christy First Novel Award, and was named Christianity Today’s Fiction Book of 2006.

Nicole has taught creative writing at Old Dominion University and currently teaches creative writing at Wheaton College. Prior to teaching, Nicole worked in a variety of settings, including the 1996 Olympics, an Episcopal Cathedral, a bank, an insurance company, and a software company. She received her B.A. in journalism from Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky and her M.F.A. in creative writing with an emphasis in fiction from Old Dominion University.

She lives with her husband and three children in Illinois and is at work on her next novel.