Saturday, June 21, 2025
The Five Towns has a new local author as Nina Kentsis has self-published her first book, “Acts of Lovingkindness.”
Kentsis, 47, received her bachelor’s in literature and French from Duke University and went on to graduate school at Columbia University where she studied business.
The Woodsburgh native’s passion for writing started in fourth grade when she read “Sweet Valley High” by Francine Pascal and Jamie Suzanne.
“Writing has definitely been one of my biggest passions since fourth grade, I’ve written a number of stories, screenplays and “Acts of Lovingkindness: is my first novel,” Kentsis said.
“Acts of Lovingkindess” is a young adult novel that is about a girl named Francie who starts her first year of high school in the mid 1990s and falls in love for the first time. While also dealing with the absence of her older brother who has been recovering from drug addiction in Brooklyn with family members.
“It’s a little bit based on my own life and originally I thought about writing it as a screenplay, it didn’t really work because so much of it is going on in the main character’s mind, so I went to try it out as a novel” Kentsis said.
She started writing her novel in November 2022, taking part in National Novel Writing Month. Kentsis had to write the first 50,000 words of the book in that month.
“I wrote the 50,000 words and kept going and then I had a couple of different drafts and started refining it, editing it and adding in a lot more detail, layers and flashbacks,” she added.
Kentsis decided to self-publish because she didn’t want to wait for a publishing company to pick it up and then schedule a later publication date.
Her book published on April 15 and is currently available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop and in select bookstores in Manhattan and Queens.
Her friends and family received early copies of the book to review and provide opinions.
Halley Agnello, a friend for the past 30 years, was a prominent draft reviewer and sounding board for Kentsis.
“I was so impressed, I had read her short stories in college and a screenplay and had always like her style of writing and voice,” Agnello wrote in an email. “This, however, was such an elevation of that. Nina had kept what made her short stories so readable, while deepening the attachment a reader has to her characters’ journeys in the novel form.”
Angello said that she was immersed in the story as soon as the first page and couldn’t put the book down.
“I didn’t expect to be so drawn in and found myself staying up late to read it,” she wrote. “I immediately felt immersed in the story and was rooting for Francie. I was so impressed with how authentic Francie’s voice felt.”
One of Kentsis’s biggest supporters is her mother, Jane Shapiro. She is also a writer and shard her wisdom with her daughter.
“When she told me she was writing this novel, I was so excited,” Shapiro said. “When it came out, thought the cover was very eye catching. It’s also very nostalgic in certain ways.”
Kentsis designed the cover herself and spent time perfecting the feel of the book.
“I am extremely proud of Nina and I know that she poured her heart and soul into this book,” Shapiro said.
To buy “Acts of Lovingkindess” on Amazon, Amazon.com/Acts-Lovingkindness-Nina-Kentsis/dp/B0DYGKPMGK
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through these links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you
