Rayne Lacko is the author of DREAM UP NOW: the Teen Journal for Self-Discovery (Free Spirit Publishing, 2020) and A SONG FOR THE ROAD (SparkPress, 2019), and offers transformative keynotes on fiction writing and social-emotional learning for K-12 and adults. As an advocate for the arts as a form of social and emotional well-being. She believes music, language, and art connect us and explores those themes in her novels, guided journals, online courses, speaking engagements, and in service to arts organizations.

She’s helped writers and teens cultivate creativity in Writers Digest, School Library Journal, DIYMFA.com, ParentMap, and GERM. Her short fiction and poetry appear in Ariel Chart International Literary Journal, Gravel, Mixtape Methodology, and Skyline. Her story, “Like Father, Like Son,” won Best of 2015 for its category at Wordhaus literary magazine. Rayne edited an outdoor adventure magazine with an annual circulation of 2.7 million for 12 years.

Rayne grew up in Canada, earning a Liberal Arts degree in Toronto, including a semester in Spain, and a Graphic Design Diploma in Vancouver; then attended UCLA’s writer’s program. She is pursuing her Master’s in Humanities in Writing and Social-Emotional Learning at Antioch University and Creative Writing at Harvard University.