Natalia grew up in the family of an electrician and an elementary school teacher in a small town in Siberia, Russia. Since childhood, she was enchanted with the beautiful language and whimsical imagery of Russian fairy tales and children's books. She studied Russian Language and Literature in Krasnoyarsk State University (as of 2006, Siberian Federal University) and received a Master of Arts degree in 1996. She worked in publishing for several years prior to moving to the USA in 2002.

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Since 2007, Natalia lives and writes in a small maritime community near Tacoma, Washington, on the shore of beautiful Puget Sound. Since 2009, Natalia has been a Bilingual Story Time presenter for King County Library System. For her work with  children, she was honored with the Federal Way School District Award and Washington State PTA Golden Acorn. The Pacific Northwest became her home in the deepest sense, and its mystical spirit reminds her of her native Siberia (luckily, not the climate) and inspires her fairy tales.

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Natalia started writing poems and stories as a child, published her first article in a local newspaper at the age of 12 (and received an unexpected royalty for it), and hasn't stopped writing in one form or another ever since. She writes in Russian and English and has publications in both Russia and the USA, online and in print. Her debut children's book Anya and Her Wings ("Аня и её крылышки") was published in 2016, creating a precedent for a rewarding collaboration with her brother, illustrator Andrei Lialin, daughter Anna and husband Justin Donie.

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