We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Noa Nimrodi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Noa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
I love this question! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to reflect and express gratitude towards my parents. I do believe they had a great deal of impact on the choices I’ve made throughout my journey. In one way or other we’re all products of our upbringing.
My parents recognized pretty early on that I was a creative child, and looking back I appreciate that they nurtured my creativity, always making me feel like I was the artist of the family. I remember a childhood with an abundance of art supplies, art classes, and visits to museums (even though financially they weren’t always well off). I have many fond memories of giving “art lessons” to my siblings, cousins and neighbors.
One specific memory that comes to mind, emphasizes how my mom (who is a pharmacist, and does not consider herself creative, but I believe she is…) was always in support of artistic freedom with no judgment. My sister and I used to draw pretty girls in fancy dresses, always omitting the nose (we couldn’t quite master drawing noses and believed our drawings looked better without them). I clearly remember one particular incident— my aunt commenting that we need to add a nose, and my mom standing up for us legitimizing our nose-less illustrations as a valid stylistic choice. As a parent I adapted a similar approach of encouraging creativity without rules, and I hope my kids will do the same with my future grandchildren. We should actually make ‘nurturing creative freedom’ a tradition to pass down to generations. I guess I should also give credit to my parents for instilling the love for family and family traditions in me— you can count that as one more thing that most likely effected my journey (family is always a central part of the stories I write).
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi readers of CanvasRebel, thank you for visiting this fabulous platform and taking interest in my story. I’m the author of Not So Shy, a contemporary middle-grade novel (for ages 9-14) which was published this past April by Kar-Ben publishing (an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group). The book follows twelve-year-old Shai and the challenges she faces moving from Israel to the US. Although the story is fictional it carries many emotional truths and was inspired by some true life incidents based on my own experiences.
I grew up in a knit-tight Israeli family, moving back and forth between Israel and the USA. By the age of twelve I’ve resided in Jerusalem (Israel), Pasadena (CA, US), Tel-Aviv (Israel), Charlottesville (VA, USA), which was way too much moving for my shy personality. Settled back in Israel in my teen years, I promised myself that when I grow up, I’ll never move my kids around (spoiler alert— I broke that promise). Thirty years and three kids later, I relocated to San Diego with my family, following my husband’s job to sunny San-Diego.
Career wise, I’ve moved a lot too. As a designer I’ve worked in packaging, exhibits, graphics, jewelry and furniture. While working as a window dresser for a large Israeli book chain, I’ve spend a lot of time surrounded by books, and having children of my own right around that time got me hooked on children’s books. I decided to try to write my own, a task that proved harder than it seemed. After many rejections, I finally got a publishing deal for my first picture book (in Hebrew), and after two years published a second one (which I also illustrated) with the same publisher (Korim publishing).
When I began writing Not So Shy, after we moved to San Diego, I thought I was channeling my kid’s experiences, especially those of my middle daughter Shai, who was twelve-years-old when we moved to America (I even ‘stole’ her name for the main character), but the deeper I got into the writing process, the more I became aware that I was also tapping into my twelve-year-old self. In many ways, the writing of this book was a journey in self-discovery. Now that the book is out in the world, it is no longer only my story— it belongs to readers of all backgrounds. Hopefully, through the diverse cast of characters in the book (Jewish-American, Jewish-Israeli, Muslim-American, Korean-American, and more), readers will be able to see a reflection of themselves between the pages, and/or gain an empathetic glimpse to experiences beyond their own.
Feel free to reach out at https://www.noanimrodi.com/
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Getting traditionally published takes resilience (and perseverance and patience…). It took me longer than I care to admit to write Not So Shy (ok, It took years— I’m a slow writer). I joined SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), attended workshops and conferences, revised with the help of my critique group (and then some additional critique partners when I needed fresh eyes). I was accepted into a mentorship program and further revised with the help of an award-winning author. I’ve brought my manuscript to the best shape I believed it could be. And then, in the midst of my journey to publication, came an offer for a different kind of journey (bear with me, I will circle back to my writing journey).
In 2018 a group of girlfriends asked me to join them in climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. In hindsight I found so many parallels between the resilience it took to reach the top of that physical mountain, and the resilience it took to reach the top of ‘mount publishing.’
When climbing the Kilimanjaro, intermediate ascents and decents were key to success. Going up and then down was the way to acclimate to the lowering levels of oxygen.
Some days we’d go up and up only to decent back to almost the same level for the night, just to build or lung capacity and acclimate to the altitude in days ahead.
I started thinking philosophically about those ups and downs— in life too, I told myself, sometimes the only way up, is up and down.
I realized that ups and downs are an inevitable part of the journey to publication. It became easier for me to understand that each down is a preparation for the summit—expecting to do it all in upward motion would not be realistic, it would leave me with no oxygen and set me up for failure.
So after summiting the literal ups and downs of Mt. Kilimanjaro, experiencing the stops for oxygen, the camaraderie, appreciating the views, and the journey (not just the final destination), I translated these lessons as a metaphor to reaching my publishing goal, and dared to face the ups and downs that were still ahead.
I finally signed with an agent in mid 2019, and a few more rounds of revisions were needed. We were eventually ready to submit to publishers— and then came Covid… and again— rejections (I reminded myself that ups and downs were an inevitable part of this journey). Even after signing with a publisher, more revisions with the editor and other details that go into the publishing process were still entailed. But resilience payed off, and the book is now out in the world. I hope my story of resilience will inspire you to push through and pursue your dreams.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
There’s so much to learn in the process of writing and publishing a book, so this question made me pause and think hard about the meaning of Unlearning. Fear of Failure is imbedded in all of us from a very early age (are we wired with it through evolution?) I realized I had to unlearn to see failure as all-negative. Instead I adopted an attitude of embracing failure as an inevitable step on the way to success (this really goes hand-in-hand with your previous question about resilience and my answer about ups and downs).
Fear of failure has often paralyzed me, stopped me from trying—being aware of the grim statistics of getting a book traditionally published fueled my fear. When I first came to the United States, I translated and self-published my first Picture Book, but quickly realized it was not the route for me. As much as the odds in traditional publishing were low, I decided to fail my way forward— trying and failing would still give me a better chance than not trying at all.
After writing and rewriting and going through multiple drafts and revisions, I started querying potential agents. This was the point where I met failure up close. But I’ve heard authors of all genres, bestselling, award-winning, and famous authors telling stories of facing rejections by agents/editors on their road to publication.
I slowly realized that with every rejection I was getting closer to reaching my goal. In every rejection there was a lesson to be learned. Unlearning to fear failure combined with persevering led me to keep trying. After countless rejections from agents I finally got an offer of representation. Rejections by editors was the next step, but hey, by this point I was a pro at being rejected, and when an offer finally came from a publisher I celebrated not giving in to the fear of failure.
I’m still constantly unlearning to fear failure; unlearning to fear fear itself— it’s an ongoing battle, but it’s a battle worth fighting.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.noanimrodi.com/
- Instagram: noanimrodi
- Linkedin: Noa Nimrodi
- Twitter: @NimrodiNoa