Raised just outside New York City, Lori Closter holds a B.A. from Cornell and a Masters in Visual Anthropology from Temple. Early on she worked in print media as a writer, copyeditor, and proofreader, and then on seven 16 mm edu/documentary films as a writer/researcher and associate producer. (Five were for National Geographic.)
For many years she taught her three children at home in New England, co-founding a thriving support group and co-op and teaching students Composition, Grammar, and Great Books. During that time she also studied fiction writing via books, online classes (Gotham Writers Workshop), conferences, and critique groups. She wrote a collection of short stories and drafted a Young Adult novel, Topping the Willow.
In 2013, Lori ventured into screenwriting under a friend/mentor and was one of a trio hired to revise a Tim LaHaye script. Though their effort was not produced, the experience inspired her to rewrite Topping the Willow as a screenplay. The feature-length drama and newly published novel have now garnered nine contest recognitions between them as well as a coveted “Recommend” from a professional story analyst. Lori is now enrolled in a yearlong VIP Producers Mentorship with Alexandra Boylan (The Boylan Sisters) and Jaclyn Whitt (co-founder of the Faith & Family Filmmakers Association) and seeking a producer or co-producer for the screenplay, now renamed BREAKING JOY. Founder and longtime member of a small Christian writers’ critique group, in 2021 Lori moved to coastal North Carolina.