Daniel Nester

And this is my website.

Hi. I’m Daniel Nester. I’m a writer, editor, educator, poet—and an unapologetic Queen fan.

Writing, in all its forms, is the throughline of everything I do. I’ve published essays, poems, and journalism in The New York Times, The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, American Poetry Review, and many other outlets. My books span memoir, humor, and poetry, often blending personal storytelling with pop culture, music, and the occasionally ridiculous.

For years, I taught writing at The College of Saint Rose, where I founded Pine Hills Review and ran the Frequency North reading series. Alongside teaching, I managed social media for my department, the journal, and the reading series—work that sharpened my sense of how language builds trust, community, and engagement online. I’ve also led writing workshops in college classrooms, hospitals, prisons, and needle exchanges.

These days, I work in public communications while continuing to write, edit, and collaborate on freelance and creative projects. Whether it’s helping subject matter experts translate ideas into clear, human language or building audience engagement around a story or cause, I stay rooted in what brought me here in the first place: words that work.

This site is a hub for my writing life—past, present, and in-progress. Want the latest? Subscribe to Here’s Where The Story Ends on Substack or drop me a line at danielnester@gmail.com.

And the photo? That’s me sitting in a recreation of James T. Kirk’s captain’s chair at the Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, NY. Photo by Rob O’Neil.