Nelsa Roberto is a mild-mannered civil servant by day and a ferocious teen-fiction writer/hockey mom/van driver by night.
Born in a remote logging community in northern Ontario, Nelsa spent much of her youth in a small, rural farming community in southern Ontario before moving to Windsor, Ontario to earn her combined Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Communication Studies.
Her debut young adult novel Illegally Blonde (Great Plains Teen Fiction,2010) tells the story of Lucinda do Amaral who comes home with newly-bleached blonde hair, expecting only a major lecture from her strict, immigrant Portuguese parents. What she doesn't expect is the shocking revelation that they're illegal workers on the verge of being being deported back to Portugal.
Her second young adult novel, THE BREAK, released in Spring 2012 is the story of Abby Lambert a girl who adores her grandmother so much she cannot accept the fact she is deteriorating into dementia. The Winnipeg Free Press called it a "a novel about guilt and the devastating effects of regret...a realistic novel with a dash of romance that teens will find appealing."
Nelsa lives in Toronto, Ontario with her husband, three children and a slightly hyperactive Golden Retriever, and is busy writing - mostly on the subway and at hockey arenas - her next young adult novel.
