President & Founder - Nikhita Thakuria

Nikhita Thakuria decided to start Quills and Keyboard this year after hearing fellow teen authors talk about how hard it was to submit to contests and find people who would give them feedback during COVID-19 and after the creation of AI like ChatGPT. Getting published as a teen author was already hard enough before these hurdles. The more research she did, she realized how privileged she even was to be able to submit to contests, let alone receive enough help to win. There were many people from her school who avoided submitting their work because of the costs and in-person meetings that collided with their already busy schedules. After recognizing that this was a typical story of a teenager author, Nikhita decided to create this annual contest. Quill and Keyboard’s main mission to to extend writing opportunities, such as publication and submissions to contests, to as many teenagers as possible.

Contact: [email protected]

Vice President & Developer - Ian Coutinho

Ian is a current junior in High School and is the Vice President & Developer for Quills and Keyboard. His interests lie in computers, as shown in his past enrollment in an AP Computer Science Course. Additionally, he participates in many other challenging courses in school and many extracurriculars such as debate, math, and his school's newspaper. In his free time, he enjoys playing piano, video games, and coding.

Contact: [email protected]