About KindWrite Studio

KindWrite Studio is a full-service company providing coaching, expert editorial assistance and personalized guidance for preparing work for submission and publication. In addition to working one-on-one to improve writing and readying pieces to publish, KindWrite hosts writing retreats where writers strengthen their craft, tap into their creativity, and build community with other writers in inspiring, supportive environments.

At KindWrite Studio, we help writers of all levels unlock their creativity and make concrete progress toward meeting their goals. Our small start-up provides the full gamut of everything an aspiring, intermediate or experienced writer might need, bringing our decades of collective experience with a personal touch.

We launched KindWrite because we’re driven to create a different approach. We strive to create spaces to help writers who may have lost confidence, feel intimidated, or simply want compassionate and constructive editorial feedback and coaching. Our greatest joys come from helping people start a project, soar through the “messy middle,” finish a manuscript, and get published.

We are proud of the fact that we foster safe spaces where writers feel empowered to take risks, share their work, and connect with others.

KindWrite team member Diana Friedman coaches writer at retreat

KindWrite team member Valerie Berton works with a client

KindWrite Studio Team

Valerie Berton, Co-Founder

Diana Friedman, Co-Founder

Val has been holding a pen for as long as she can remember. After publishing award-winning stories in college, she became a reporter so she could keep at the craft. Then, when Val transitioned into public affairs, she applied her strong writing and editing skills and ability to create informative, persuasive messaging to help organizations tell their stories.

Most recently, Val led a communications team at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where she built a reputation for message strategy, using the power of language to craft persuasive speeches and other comms, and mentoring colleagues.

Val brings that same clarity and editorial rigor to KindWrite Studio, helping writers refine their work with accuracy, polish, and purpose. Frequently told she has a way with words, Val finds it rewarding to lend her skills and eye for powerful language to others. She volunteers as a proofreader for Cleaver and a mentor for Girls Write Now and works as a freelance editor for The Nature Conservancy. She has been published in Adelaide Literary Magazine (Lost Connection), and her essay, Hasty Exit, was selected for inclusion in B Cubed Press' anthology, Alternative Liberties II (mid-2026). She’s thrilled to return to her creative roots and partner with her friend, Diana, to run a studio that supports writers wherever they are in their creative process.

Diana is an award-winning author, editor and writing coach whose creative writing has appeared in literary journals, newspapers, blogs, and popular press magazines. Diana enjoys helping writers re-discover and nurture their creative selves through personalized coaching. She facilitates summer creative writing retreats in the Basque Pyrenees of Spain, and winter and spring writing retreats at Zigbone Farm Retreat Center. She writes a newsletter, Under the Red Pen, and is currently co-editing an anthology of short fiction from Maryland.

Diana grew up in a family of authors, where writing was not only revered, but also held to the highest standard. For years Diana worked as a research analyst, scientist, and science writer and editor, but kept her eye out for opportunities to help other writers and develop her own voice. Reclaiming that voice took hard-won personal work and a deep commitment to self-reflection, but along the way to building her writing, editing and teaching career, Diana discovered encouragement and compassion can coexist with rigor. Those years of gaining wisdom have paid off. At KindWrite, which she co-launched with her longtime friend and colleague, Val, she has created a unique way to nurture other creative voices—an approach grounded in empathy, curiosity, and respect. There is nothing she enjoys more than supporting other writers in telling their stories.

Ryann Beckham, Intern

Grace Lee, Intern

Ryann Beckham is a rising senior at Scripps College in Claremont, California, where she majors in writing and rhetoric and takes classes on creative nonfiction and persuasive storytelling. In addition to working with KindWrite Studio this summer, where she will focus on social media promotion, Ryann interns for The {C} Magazine writing about arts and culture. In her free time, Ryann creates poetry, fiction and stage scripts and screenplays. When she isn’t filling up her journal pages, Ryann enjoys performing and arranging music for her on-campus a cappella group, acting in campus theater productions, and working as an events/communications fellow for the college’s Office of Black Student Affairs.

Grace Lee is a journalism major at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where she is rising junior. As a KindWrite intern, she contributes to short-form video production, editorial projects and helps organize the studio's digital materials.

At Denison, she created and hosts "Denni Talk," a video interview series featuring conversations with professors and student leaders across campus. She is also involved in student entrepreneurship and enjoys speaking with people to better understand their needs and develop solutions.

We've Edited These! (Sampling of Pubs from Our Clients)

Learn More About KindWrite Services

Coaching | Editing | Submitting | Retreats