Meet Nina Moreno | Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nina Moreno and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nina, is there something you believe many others might not?
Something writers often hear is how important it is to write every day. Something about discipline and how crucial it is as creatives to just get words on the page. A blank page is an intimidating foe to stare down, especially when you have that story or character in your head, but you’re not finding the words to get them just right. Doubt packs a punch and guilt is quick to follow. Give yourself grace when the words don’t show up. Don’t feel guilty when you’re making those playlists and vision boards and enjoying the space where you remember why you love the work.

Because listen, once you get in the thick of writing as a career, those deadlines don’t allow for as much space to sit with an idea, but daydreaming, reading, and staring off into space while we wrestle with the muse will always be part of writing. We have to fill the creative well to create and sometimes that won’t mean writing every day or even every week or month, and that’s okay.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My goal as a writer is to tell stories that not only include people like me but star them. Whether it’s a Gilmore Girls-like YA contemporary about a Type A Latina figuring out where she fits between her mother and grandmother or a funny middle-grade about a seventh grader currently living in a multi-generational home who really just wants some independence but got the opposite as now her abuela is sharing a room with her. They’re specific stories that can feel really universal to the coming-of-age experience.

It definitely wasn’t an easy journey to becoming a published author and required a lot of stubborn persistence, especially when I was my biggest critic. When I sold my first book, I worried if a soft contemporary specific to the Cuban-American experience would be picked up to sit alongside all those cozy, romantic, coming-of-age stories I loved without her journey being reduced to some moral lesson about immigration. It’s easy to talk ourselves out of telling familiar stories when there are a million about teenagers navigating high school and their senior year. But each iteration can offer something new and exciting. It’s a universal experience to search for ourselves in media, and as storytellers continue to tell new stories from different perspectives, we offer infinite versions of those experiences. I love being apart of that tapestry and canon.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Publishing, like a lot of industries, can make a lot of us feel like there aren’t enough seats at the table. Many of us have heard some form of, “Oh, we’ve already got a [insert identity] book…” which can make it feel impossible to build community because we’re always set up as each other’s direct competition. Which is why I think it was so incredible that when my debut was bought back in 2018, several Latina authors who were all debuting came together and got in front of that by creating a marketing collective. We celebrated book birthdays and launches and pushed each other’s work. Las Musas are now in their fifth year and a huge force in publishing. They’ve started a conference for Latinx children’s literature, are always working with schools, librarians and teachers who may not always get that level of outreach, and fostered a mentorship for up and coming authors. Because if an industry says there aren’t enough seats, our communities come together to build bigger tables.

Website: ninamoreno.com

Instagram: @ninamoreno