Bold and Brave: Picture Book Writing on the Edge
with NoNieqa Ramos
What does "writing on the edge" mean for your story content?
Are there any topics you think may be age-inappropriate? With the rampant book banning occurring across the country, how does “edgy” content affect our potential to be published, marketed, and used in classrooms and libraries? Award-winning author NoNieqa Ramos explores our mission as children’s writers and how our content, our structure, and our language can be age-appropriate, edgy, bold, and brave!
Don't miss 100 minutes of video, transcript, and downloadable audio track with NoNieqa as she helps you find your bold voice!
"Critically important and so powerful and empowering! Thank you!"
- Maureen Egan
"I had put a book on the back burner because of its content,
but now I’m inspired to figure out a way to get it out there. Thank you!"
- Jilanne Hoffmann
Your Instructor
NoNieqa Ramos is an educator and writer of picture books and young adult literature. They wrote THE DISTURBED GIRL’S DICTIONARY, a 2018 New York Public Library Best Book for Teens, a 2019 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection, and a 2019 In the Margins Award Top Ten pick. It earned starred reviews from Booklist, Voya, and Foreword.
Their debut picture book YOUR MAMA illustrated by Jacqueline Alcántara earned starred reviews from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Kirkus. The Virginia Center for the Book selected YOUR MAMA as Virginia’s GREAT READ for 2021 highlighted by the Library of Congress’ Center for the Book at the National Book Festival. YOUR MAMA won a Nerdy Book Club Award, was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, a School Library Journal Best Picture Book of 2021, a Kirkus Best Picture Book of the 2021, a bank Street Books Best Book of 2021, a 2022 ALA Rise Feminist Book Selection, and a National Council of English Books Notable Poetry Book.
Their pb BEAUTY WOKE illustrated by Paola Escobar, earned starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus, was a Kirkus Best Book of 2022, a Chicago Public Library and New York Public Library Best Book of 2022, and was a Bank Street Best Children's Book of 2023.
In 2024, NoNieqa will release a dystopian YA novel with Lerner Books examining systemic and institutionalized racism in education, a short story queer retelling of THE RAVEN called EVERMORE in a SFF YA anthology with Inkyard Press (RELIT: 16 LATINX REMIXES OF CLASSIC STORIES), a short story called CRESCENT DANCES with the STARS in an MG anthology with Penguin and their first picture book bio, THE TRES HERMANAS: A SISTERHOOD of the COMMON GOOD.
NoNieqa is a proud member of Las Musas Books collective and the Soaring 20s PB debut group. They live with their familia in Virginia in a plantopia of books, art, and Legos.
Course Curriculum
Frequently Asked Questions
"Your passion and encouragement, NoNieqa, were refreshing and so welcoming."
- Marsha Wright
"Thank you, NoNieqa. I'm so inspired to revisit my current and future work with a new Manifesto!"
- Liz Godfrey
"I am so very grateful to have been able to hear Ms. Ramos’ brilliant wisdom. Thank you for sharing and inspiring us all."
- Lorrie Oshatz