I’m Skylar. I wear many hats.

I’m primarily a secondary English teacher specializing in personalized, culturally-responsive 1-to-1 education.

I have been teaching all of my adult life. Throughout college, I taught creative writing to K-12 students in summer programs and after-school programs through programs and partnerships with various Iowa-based nonprofits. After college, I served as a member of the Americorps’ Iowa Reading Corps and a paraeducator in a local elementary school.

When the pandemic started, I transitioned into online Zoom classes and online tutoring, teaching as many as 300 students at a time. During the later stages of the pandemic, I got my Master’s degree from NYU in secondary education and taught 9th grade in the Bronx as part of my student teaching experience. These days, I primarily teach in an online private school environment, specializing in one-on-one classes, but I sometimes offer classes for adults as well.

I also moonlight as a freelance designer; my bread and butter is book design.

I have been a freelance designer for over ten years. Although I have done my share of logos, posters, and websites over the years, these days I only accept book design contracts. My bread and butter is anthologies, literary magazines, chapbooks, and full-length books for nonprofit organizations, literary magazines, and individual clients looking to self-publish with style.

You may also know me as a writer.

Even as a writer, I wear many hats: I have published poetry, creative nonfiction, short stories, and flash fiction in various journals both print and digital. In 2022, I released my first poetry collection, Searching for Petco, with Forklift Books. I tend to write about pop culture, philosophy, chronic illness, family, violence, travel, and the particularities of growing up as a moody goth kid in rural Iowa.

Fun fact: As a teenager in the late aughts, my sappy supernatural teen romance novel was one of the most popular novels on the website “FictionPress.”

Want to see my work? Check out my publication history.

Want to know more about my book? Get familiar with “Searching for Petco.”

You may also know me from that one time I went viral in India.

Shortly following my marriage in Puri, Odisha, my husband and I were randomly interviewed by Pratadin TV (Odisha’s largest TV network); initially, I was asked to comment about a reading at an event we had just attended, but seeing us together, the reporters decided to do an on-the-spot human interest story that aired all over the state. The interview went viral on Facebook and YouTube, gaining over a million views, and led to us (well, me) being recognized everywhere I went for the 24 hours that followed.

Being the bouma (daughter-in-law) of a Bengali family is an exciting, yet exacting experience. I will be writing about our adventures as we work through the challenges of bicultural life in my newsletter, Being Bouma.

Recently, I started offering manuscript critique & editorial services.

I spent most of my twenties heavily engaged in both teaching creative writing and doing editorial work. As such, I’ve recently started offering manuscript critiques and editorial services to individuals. I provide feedback not only on creative pieces but also on statements of purpose, resumes, and scientific papers.

Let’s talk.