Maria Koklanaris Bonaquist is a writer with 25 years of professional experience.

 A grad of Penn State,  and an alum of its student paper, The Daily Collegian,  Maria started her career on the East End of Long Island, writing for a summer publication in the Hamptons.  Soon after the summer ended,  she moved to Northern Virginia to interview in -- where else -- Reston..  with The Connection Newspapers. 

Following the Connection, Maria was an editorial assistant at the Washington Post, and a Metro desk reporter at the Washington Times. 

She began freelancing in 1996 when her first child was an infant, and has done so ever since.  Maria lives in Oakton with her husband, a teenage son and daughter and a spoiled beagle.