Niyathi Chakrapani

Niyathi Nidhi Chakrapani (born August 29, 1997) is an American author, writing instructor, blogger on Veritas and The Huffington Post, Scholastic National Award-winning poet, and founder of the Sammamish Youth Writing Club. Chakrapani writes mainly on human nature and psychology through her blog posts, poems, and essays. Her book Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Stars is a compilation of 53 poems about the light and dark sides of human nature, and her blog Veritas is subtitled "A teenager's take on human nature, and this thing we share called individualism."
Teaching
Chakrapani says that "I started writing at a young age...Little children are attracted to bright and shiny objects, and I suppose that, for me, it was a pen or the ferrule of a pencil.” After winning numerous awards for her writing, Chakrapani began teaching children and adults in her junior year of high school. Chakrapani teaches weekly lessons at the Sammamish Youth Writing Club, of which she is the Founder and President. Chakrapani was also an instructor at LifeStories Sammamish, where she taught adults and teenagers to tell stories through poetry. Chakrapani was also invited by a New York Times bestselling author to teach a "Writing for Teens" seminar at Northwest Bookfest.
Sammamish Youth Writing Club
Chakrapani is the Founder and President of the Sammamish Youth Writing Club, sponsored by the Sammamish Arts Commission and King County Library System. The SYWC mission statement is to "provide an avenue of expression for local writers, and a venue for them to develop and expand their skills, nurture their passion, and interact with fellow writers." The club is partnered with Kinspire, the Washington Students Science Association, and Academic Help. The club has 80 members, with the usual turnout numbering 30-40 every Tuesday at the Sammamish Library. The club is open to students ages 9-18, is free of charge, and offers a personal connection to writing that they might not get at school. Members have been using real-world connections, submitting their work to various publications. Resources include magazines like AGNI, A-Minor and American Athanaeum. The club invites published authors to lead a workshop at the first meeting of every month. Members have heard from Robert Harken, a self-published science-fiction author; haiku poet Michael Dylan Welch; and Erika Mitchell, a thriller specialist who led a “realistic fiction” workshop in early January. Other workshop leaders include Adi Alsaid, who stopped at the SYWC for a workshop as part of his country-wide tour; New York Times Bestselling Author Robert Dugoni, who gave a mystery workshop; and 2012-2014 and current Washington Poet Laureates Kathleen Flenniken and Elizabeth Austen, respectively. The SYWC hosts the Issaquah-Sammamish Writing Competition, an annual competition judged by university professors and sponsored by the Issaquah Schools Foundation, Sammamish Arts Commission, and private businesses. The competition gave out over $600 in its 2014 contest.
Honors, Awards and Publications
* Author of Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Stars, which can be found on Amazon.
* Two-time National Silver Medalist at the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, for which Chakrapani attended an awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall with Usher, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lena Dunham, Terrence Hayes, and Zac Posen.
* Two-time 1st Place Winner of the KCLS Rhyme On! Competition
* 1st Place Winner at the State Competition in the Entrepreneurship Written Event
* State Literature Award of Merit winner in the Reflections Competition
* All-Northwest Symphonic Choir soloist
* Published on the blog of the 2012-2014 Washington Poet Laureate
* Award-winning works published on the Scholastic Corporation website
* Blogger on The Huffington Post
* Blogger and Administrator on Veritas

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