True Story
Chiara Colombi never knew she wanted to be a writer. She was quite confident she would grow up to be an astronaut. In fact, she is still quite confident that she will grow up to be an astronaut. But in the meantime, she enjoys counting her lucky stars and finding words for the countless stories they inspire. She currently lives in California with her family and an open view of the sky.
Backstory
Press Kit Bio
Chiara Colombi is the author of Rocket Ship, Solo Trip, illustrated by Scott Magoon. An Italian-American bilingual wordsmith dedicated to the art of engineering with words, she worked for a decade as a translator before pivoting into product marketing at a Silicon Valley startup in the data privacy space. She is as comfortable talking about PII (personally identifiable information) as she is talking about PBs (picture books), though she'd love it if you asked her about Jupiter's moons. She currently lives in California with her family and an open view of the sky.
In the news
Looking for more stories? Below is a collection of interviews, articles, podcasts, and webinars in which I was lucky enough to be featured, including from outside the writing world...
The Magoon Tribune: Sharing Space
The flight crew behind Rocket Beams, Lunar Dreams, including me, Scott, our editor, and our art director, share our experiences creating this book together in an exclusive round-table interview.
Reading With Your Kids podcast
Scott and I join the podcast to share the story behind Rocket Beams, Lunar Dreams, and our own stellar dreams that inspired us to create these books.
You May Contribute a Verse
The twisting tale of my journey as a writer and to publication, including my thoughts on querying, marketing, and transporting accordions across the Lower East Side.
Bay Area Parent, May 2024
Check out pages 14-15 for my first op-ed in which I share a launch plan for success in helping kids navigate new experiences, featuring quotes from Rocket Ship, Solo Trip!
The Joys of Booking
Scott Magoon and I share making-of-Rocket-Ship details and cosmic musings in this Q&A interview, paired with space-themed recipes!
Reading With Your Kids podcast
I share stories about my own firsts as a parent and what I've learned along the way, including the importance of language in helping us understand our emotions.
YA Books Central interview for Rocket Ship, Solo Trip!
In this Q&A, I share my approach to honing my picture book voice, a #writinghack involving vacuuming, and which fandom I wish I could write for some day.
The Magoon Tribune: Chiara Colombi is Ready for Takeoff!
Scott Magoon tossed a number of space-themed questions my way that made for a stellar—and very fun—launch-day interview!
Maria Marshall's The Picture Book Buzz
Learn the story behind the story of Rocket Ship, Solo Trip, along with tidbits about my writing habits and favorite childhood reads!
Tara Lazar's Storystorm Event
In my guest article for Storystorm 2024, I offer a hands-on prompt to inspire new story ideation based on combining a series of unrelated, small steps. It's one small step for Storystormers...one giant leap for Storystorming!
Podcast: Test Guild
Listen to me nerd out on data synthesis, data privacy, and why software developers shouldn't be using real data to build and test the apps that we all use every day. It's super interesting, I promise!
Blog: Tuesday From the Trenches
I share my querying journey that landed me my (first) agent, on fellow kidlit author Kailei Pew's blog. Lots of details around my numbers, timeline, and process.