Caitlin Alifirenka (Stoicsitz) was born in 1985 in Chestnuthill, Pennsylvania to Anne Neville and Richard Stoicsitz. Caitlin started corresponding with Martin Ganda, her Zimbabwean pen pal, in 1997 which led to a life long friendship. After graduating from North Penn High School in 2003, Caitlin attended Abington Memorial Hospital's Dixon School of Nursing and now works as an Emergency Room Registered Nurse. Caitlin lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband Dzmitry Alifirenka and their two young daughters, Mila and Dasha.

Books by Caitlin Alifirenka

I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives

by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda, with Liz Welch - Nonfiction

It started as an assignment. Everyone in Caitlin's class wrote to an unknown student somewhere in a distant place. Martin was lucky to even receive a pen-pal letter. There were only 10 letters, and 40 kids in his class. But he was the top student, so he got the first one. That letter was the beginning of a correspondence that spanned six years and changed two lives. In this dual memoir, Caitlin and Martin recount how they became best friends --- and better people --- through their long-distance exchange.