'You should talk to someone' captures the essential strangeness of being human, how the ordinary and even tedious details of daily life are forever linked to the overwhelming mysteries and yearning secrets that shadow us. This is a beautiful, thoughtful, weird little piece. My hat is off."
Published Fiction
“Reading the Signs” Cagibi (2023)
“Spoiled” Subnivean (2022)
“Little Neck Lowball” VOIS (2022)
“You should talk to someone” Subnivean (2021)
“A Trunk, Full” Sunlight Press (2021)
“Elementary” Reflex Fiction (2019)
“Madeline Leibewitz” The Albion Review (2019)
“Found” The Tufts Observer (2017)
“All My Last Things” prose, The Tufts Observer (2016)
Notable Mentions
“Taking the Day Off” – Manchester Fiction Prize, Highly Commended (2019)
“A Little Weight” – Larry Brown Short Story Award, Top Ten (2019)
“Commodore Sergeant” – Morse Hamilton Fiction Prize, Honorable Mention (2018)
Awards
Nicole’s feature film CRYING LAUGHING LOVING LYING advanced to the quarterfinalist round out of nearly 2,000 submissions.
Logline: Featuring all 20 songs from Labi Siffre’s album of the same name, this musical tale follows a runaway bride and her friends who take in an American trying to find himself in 1970s England.
Screencraft Reader Comments: “Narrative’s perfectly aligned with the music… [the script has] a deceptive sort of simplicity that’s heartbreaking and totally cinematic.”
As a result of ScreenCraft’s ranking on Coverfly, Crying Laughing Loving Lying made it onto the Red List. As of July 2022, it is ranked as the #3 Musical in the past month, #2 Musical Feature in the past month, and #20 Musical in the past year. View this ranking on Coverfly.
Nicole’s short screenplay NO, DOUGHN’T! advanced to the quarterfinalist round in ScreenCraft’s short screenplay competition out of nearly 1,400 submissions.
Logline: A young woman takes up baking while in isolation and starts feeding living organisms to her starter dough in order to maintain the hobby.
Nicole’s short story “Little Neck Lowball” advanced to the quarterfinalist round of this competition out of nearly 800 submissions. This story was later published in VOIS as their July 2022 feature.
Logline: A young woman’s return home sparks memories of her childhood, her gangster father, and the events leading to her brother’s death.
Excerpt: “To most people, 1971 is a year. To me, it is an eternal moment, one charged with all the notions of childhood. Back then, nobody watches kids. Back then, it is me, my brother Felix, and our half-brother Jr. We spend all day on the boardwalk playing endless games in the arcade and making fun of tourists to their faces. Felix is about to start high school. He takes interest in the war, which scares me. I remind myself that he can’t be drafted until he is eighteen. I am sure the war will be over by then.”
Subnivean’s editorial mission is to “curate and produce bone-deep, high-caliber literary art that speaks urgently to an evermore connected international audience.” In March, Nicole was one of eight finalists in the 2021 Subnivean Awards with her piece “You should talk to someone.” She’d go on to win the competition that May. Watch her present at the virtual Subnivean Awards.
“The Marshall Hochhauser Prize, established in 1985 by his family, is presented annually to seniors who exemplify the altruistic spirit of the man whose name it bears. Marshall Hochhauser, A’82P, E’79P, was national chairman of the Parents Fund at the onset of the Campaign for Tufts and labored on behalf of undergraduate education at Tufts far beyond the call of duty. Recipients have worked within the system to broaden and enrich the intellectual climate at Tufts without regard for personal gain. The Board of the Experimental College will make the selections for the Hochhauser Prize.”
Screenplays
Logline: Featuring all 20 songs from Labi Siffre’s album of the same name, this musical tale follows a runaway bride and her friends who take in an American trying to find himself in 1970s England.
Labi Siffre is a queer British singer-songwriter and poet. He was born in 1945 to a British mother and Nigerian father. His music has been heavily sampled by modern musicians such as Kanye West, Jay Z, Eminem, and the Wu-Tang Clan.
View this project on Coverfly.
(Registered with WGA)
Stalky & Co. is a 12-episode drama inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s (in)famous school stories.
The year is 1881. The setting is the United Services College, a boarding school in the seaside village of Westward, Ho!, England established by poor officers for the cheap education of their sons.
Our main characters are a rebellious trio of boys determined to do anything but follow the rules, as well as the masters tasked with keeping them in line. Friends Stalky, McTurk, and Beetle must survive their final year of school, after which they’ll decide whether or not go up for Queen Victoria’s army.
This period drama is a cross between Dead Poets Society and Stand by Me. A pilot and series treatment are both completed and available upon request.
After placing in ScreenCraft’s TV Pilot Script Competition and the Atlanta Film Festival Script Competition, Stalky & Co. made The Coverfly Red List as the #8 Drama Pilot (half-hour) in February 2023.
This short screenplay was inspired by a “What if…?” question posed by Nicole’s roommate. No, Doughn’t would go on to be a quarterfinalist in ScreenCraft’s short screenplay competition and the Atlanta Film Festival Screenwriting Competition. It is currently ranked in the top 9% of discoverable projects on Coverfly.
Logline: A young woman takes up baking while in isolation and starts feeding living organisms to her starter dough in order to maintain the hobby.
Logline: A tennis player and a sorority girl attending the same prestigious college must confront the unhealthy ways in which they measure their self-worth.
At the fictional Harding College, Cash is a mysterious transfer who walked onto the tennis team in the fall. Though technically the best player on the team, he’s losing every match. Cash must face the trauma of his freshman year if he is to get back on track at Harding. Meanwhile, Imogene is a popular and driven junior who self-image has been shaped by her Christian upbringing. Imogene’s desperation for a committed relationship leads to increasingly promiscuous behavior, which affects her reputation and sorority’s social standing.
This coming-of-age drama is a cross between Ordinary People and The Rules of Attraction.
Film Projects
Log-line: Three stories of change and perseverance complement each other over the course of a few days in a small Ohio town.
Nicole’s scripts served as the basis for a new Independent Film course at Tufts thanks to Ex-College Director and filmmaker Howard Woolf and film producer Khary Jones. Production took place in the Fall, and post-production in the Spring.
Watch the finished film here.
Logline: A girl who can see the future tries to make sense of her powers after the death of her immortality-obsessed father.
In her senior year at Tufts, Nicole worked with fellow students Hunter Silvestri and Sarah Walsh to bring this 2-D story of mortality and meals to life. In producing the film, she ran a successful Kickstarter campaign as well as managed the storyboarding and casting process.
Watch the latest screen test here.
Teaching
Nicole takes advantage of any opportunities to give back to the writing community. In 2020, she was invited to give a 3-hour guest lecture at the University of California, Berkeley to J. Mira. Koppel’s Advanced Screenwriting class. During the lecture, Nicole provided industry advice and workshopped select students’ work. She also gave an in-depth look at what life is like for a typical Hollywood assistant. She was invited back in 2021.
Each spring semester, Tufts’ ExCollege allows a few dedicated undergraduates the opportunity to design their own for-credit course. Nicole’s course “Getting Wicked: Discovering the Literary Roots of Musicals” compared major musicals to their original literary sources. While the course began with in-depth text analyses, students were encouraged to channel their creativity through projects, discussions, games, and activities. Check out the original syllabus.
After completing American Sign language I, II, and III at Tufts, Nicole become a tutor through the university’s peer-tutoring program. As an upperclassman, Nicole worked one on one with students to help them improve their signing skills. She also led a weekly language circle to further develop conversational skills.