Portfolio
I have been writing and editing professionally since 2010, with experience spanning copy editing print and digital magazines, managing freelancers, assessing pitches, assigning stories, scheduling content, and developing in-house style guides and lexicons. While my my work covers community newspapers and magazines, content writing, literary journalism, and digital communications, including online marketing, social media and newsletter management, this portfolio is limited to what I have been able to capture through PDFs.
As a consultant and project coordinator, I help organizations design and execute projects that are efficient, inclusive, and impactful. I specialize in integrating principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility into project planning, community engagement, and organizational strategy. With a proven record of managing complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives, national consultations, and community engagement projects, I guide clients in identifying barriers, developing practical solutions, and implementing processes that ensure everyone’s voice is represented and valued. Skilled in event logistics, budgeting, stakeholder relations, and cross-team collaboration, I combine strategic planning with an understanding of systemic inequities to develop and deliver initiatives that resonate with the communities they serve.
Resume and CV
Nico Mara-McKay’s Curriculum Vitae
Editing Portfolio
Nico Mara-McKay’s Editing Portfolio
Writing Samples
Book Chapter
“Commemorating Community: The St Kunibert Office of the Dead,” in Illuminating Life: Manuscript Pages of the Middle Ages (Univeresity of Guelph, 2020).
Academic Articles
“Witchcraft Pamphlets at the Dawn of the Scottish Enlightenment,” The Journal of History 56:3 (2021): 381–401.
“Becoming Gendered: Two Medieval Approaches to Intersex Gender Assignment,” Prandium 7:1 (2018): 1-10.
Select Journal, Magazine, and Blog Articles
“Blueskys CEO meltdown How leadership continues to fail its most marginalized users,” Medium.com, 6 October 2025.
“How to Bluesky,” Medium.com, 16 August 2023.
“Seriously Funny: The Surrealism of Rachel SV Parry,” Scapi Magazine, 1 September 2014.
“A Beginner’s Guide to Taxes,” The Medium, 14 March 2014.
“Keeping Ontario’s Roads Safe Act includes expanded protection for cyclists,” dandyhorse magazine, 18 March 2014.
Selcect Reviews
“On the Power of Maia Kobabes Gender Queer One of the Most Banned Books of Its Era,” Literary Hub, 12 March 2026.
Review of Complicity, Quill and Quire (March 2014).
“Navigating Shifting Currents: Tanis Rideout’s Arguments with the Lake,” ARC Poetry Magazine (June 2014).
For a more complete list of my past written work, please see my publication history.
Select Exhibitions
Community Ties: Our Future Together (sole curator), The ArQuives (Toronto, ON), digital exhibition, 2025.
Illuminating Life: Manuscript Pages of the Middle Ages (curated with Brenna Clark, Kathryn Comper, Rosalie Engels, Richard Griffin, Nico Mara-McKay, Brittney Payer, and Alex Wall), Archival and Special Collections, University of Guelph (Guelph, ON), 12 March-12 May 2020.
Queer Liberation Theory Project (sole curator, created for Dr. Nick Mulé and Queer Ontario), The ArQuives (Toronto, ON), digital exhibition, 2020.
Genderqueer in Canada (sole curator), The ArQuives (Toronto, ON), digital exhibition, 2020.
Between (curated with Interstice Collective: Brendan Bradley, Natalie Chan, Anran Guo, Nada Hafez, John Ryan Manahan, Nico Mara-McKay, Aaliyah Mitchell Harris, and Abby Nowak), Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto Mississauga (Mississauga, ON), 4-14 April 2018.
