Nina LaCour
News Appearances Keeping a Notebook Transcripts
Nina LaCour
 
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A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens

A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year

A Kirkus Best Book of the Year

A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2020

 

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The Slow Novel Lab offers a transformative six weeks of writing explorations, craft lessons, video lectures, and weekly live Q&A calls with bestselling and award-winning novelist Nina LaCour. Nina guides you through deepening your craft as you write your novel with intention, increased clarity, and a spirit of exploration. You’ll find new ways into your story, gain momentum, and develop mindset strategies to help you navigate the uncertainties of the writing life.

The Writing Life:
Podcast, Conversations
& Classes

Explore the writing life with Nina through her email newsletter series Letters From Nina, her podcast "Keeping a Notebook," and her online class The Slow Novel Lab. After a decade of novel writing practice, five published books, and thousands of teaching hours, Nina has a lot to share about the craft of fiction and leading a fulfilling creative life.

 
 

Keeping a Notebook

Welcome to Keeping a Notebook: a podcast on writing with me, Nina LaCour. Some episodes will get deep into the specifics of crafting a story, answering questions about character and plot. Others will focus on the personal experiences and perspectives that we all bring to our work, and how to trust that what we’re making is worthy of our time and other people’s attention. And we’ll also talk about routines and rituals and ways to not only weave our creative practices into our daily lives, but also to prioritize them and make room for the kinds of explorations that will keep us moving forward. I hope you’ll subscribe and join me here.


Letters from Nina

Join “Letters from Nina,” an email newsletter for musings on writing and life, including printable PDFs with writing tips, first looks at class and mentorship offerings, and news on Nina's upcoming books and appearances. (Just looking for book announcements and news? There's a box to check for that!)

 
 

We Are Okay

Now available in paperback!

Winner of the 2018 Michael L. Printz Award

“Short, poetic and gorgeously written. . . . The world LaCour creates is fragile but profoundly humane.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A beautiful, devastating piece of art. . . . An extraordinary work.” —Bookpage

An elegantly crafted paean to the cleansing power of truth. —Kirkus, starred review

“LaCour paints a captivating depiction of loss, bewilderment, and emotional paralysis . . . raw and beautiful.” —Booklist, starred review

 
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You Know Me Well

A Seventeen Magazine Best
YA Book of 2016

"Often subtle and always absorbing." –Booklist

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Everything Leads to You

A Junior Library Guild Selection

"This is summer love for the ages." –Booklist

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The Disenchantments

A Kirkus Best Teen Book of 2012

"This is about the inside and outside of characters, the past and future of their lives—and it is astonishing." –Booklist

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Hold Still

A William C. Morris Honor Winner

"An impressive debut." –Publishers Weekly

 
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News and Appearances

Find links to learn more about Nina and her work. An up-to-date list of upcoming appearances and events is also found here.

News

Featured
Bustle Features an Interview Between Nina & Jandy Nelson
Bustle Features an Interview Between Nina & Jandy Nelson
The Washington Post features We Are Okay in a look at the evolution of YA

The Washington Post includes We Are Okay as one of nine influential novels over fifty years!

San Francisco Chronicle- Voice of youth: Author Nina LaCour honored for her YA fiction
San Francisco Chronicle- Voice of youth: Author Nina LaCour honored for her YA fiction

Appearances

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About Nina

Nina LaCour is the bestselling and Michael L. Printz Award winning author of We Are Okay, Hold Still, Everything Leads to You and The Disenchantments. She is also the co-author, with David Levithan, of You Know Me Well. A life-long lover of books and storytelling, she is on the faculty of Hamline University's MFAC program; runs The Slow Novel Lab, an online novel writing course; and hosts Keeping a Notebook: A podcast on writing with Nina LaCour. Born and raised in California, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and daughter. Read more…

Follow Nina on Instagram for conversations on craft and creativity and an inside look at her writing process.

I have my own way of looking at the world. You have your own way, too. And even though so much is involved in writing a good story, our ways of looking are what allow there to exist innumerable novels about coming of age, or marriage, or grief. Your childhood story might take place in the desert, or in a vibrant, crowded city, while mine takes place behind an apartment complex in a California suburb. . In the mornings my daughter and I often look out of the bedroom window. She sees the flowers blooming and the birds pecking at the grass. I see my writing studio waiting for me, and a garden that needs weeding. . If we were to write stories of that same view, they would be about different things altogether. . There have been plenty of times when I’ve worried that my particular way of looking at the world won’t be of interest to other people. But after a lot of practice and experimentation, I’ve been able to dispel that worry. Every time I choose to focus on something sm
Houston, here I come! Hope to see many of you at NCTE.
Someone asked me about writer’s block. About how often I get it, and what I do about it when it comes. I want to start out by saying that I don’t believe in writer’s block. We all have times when the words come easily and times when they don’t. It’s part of the ebb and flow of the writer’s life. We can always find a path forward. . But if you are feeling truly, deeply stuck in a project, the necessary thing to do is to move away from your computer, get a notebook and pen, and ask yourself some difficult questions. . What is *making* you stuck? . Have you fallen out of love with your story? . Is there something in it that is scaring you? That you are avoiding because it feels too close, or too ugly, or too vulnerable to explore on the page? . Are you protecting yourself by not writing what you truly want to write? . Are you playing it safe, or trying to write like someone you aren’t, out of a sense of self-preservation or self-doubt? . Go down t
“How do you find plot in character-driven stories? I find mine dragging in the middle and often struggle to know where to end or how to weave in more plot to find a good balance. Any advice on these things would be greatly appreciated!” . My answer is this: You may not actually have a problem. . I teach in a graduate writing program at Hamline University in Minnesota, and so much of the advice I give to my students when I’m reading their novels in progress—or even their outlines—is, “Does all of this actually have to happen? What if we took this and this and this away?” I love to open up space in a novel, to have time in it for characters to reflect and fully inhabit their worlds. . If you’re writing a character-driven novel and you become overly worried about a traditional idea of plot—that it’s a series of causal actions and events, building in tension and leading to a *big event*, a truly climactic moment—you risk los
BIG NEWS! . I’ve started a podcast! This past few months interacting with so many of you in a meaningful way on this platform has led me to think of ways to expand the conversations and have room for more depth and complexity. Having a podcast has been one of those “maybe someday” fantasies that I’ve harbored for years, and in the first episode (which is newly up as of this morning!) I talk about what made me decide to actually do it. It’s a big experiment. I hope you enjoy it. Links to iTunes, Spotify & Tune In are in my bio! . I would absolutely love to hear what you all think of the first episode and if there are particular topics you’d like for me to cover in the future. . As always, thank you so much for sharing this space and all of your ideas with me.
This is my writing studio. For years, I’ve been dreaming of a detached space to work in, and when it became time to actually place the order, the act felt symbolic, like I was saying, “My work is worth this huge investment.” Which made me think of all the other times I’ve invested in my own work. . Graduate school was the biggest—two years and lots of student loan debt! But I wrote half of what would become my first novel during that time, as well as the short story that would lead me in a rather circuitous way to my agent. . I’ve invested in myself and my work in so many ways. During some of my busiest months, I have promised myself fifteen minutes a day. Just fifteen minutes, usually after nightfall, each one of them a gift to myself. I’ve invested in myself by taking walks around the block to clear my head. And by drinking a cup of coffee slowly while staring at the sky. And by taking a day off of work to pull weeds and plant in the dirt, tr
Listen to Your Heart (Part Two) . Hello, friends! I’m continuing my post from yesterday with tip number two. . 2. If it doesn’t feel right to you, it probably isn’t. Sometimes we see methods of self-promotion working well for other people and feel tempted to try them ourselves, only to discover that they don’t feel right. (Example: the aforementioned video I almost made but didn’t.) But this tip can be tricky because there is a difference between things feeling *comfortable* and feeling *right*. For some of us, putting ourselves out there in any way will never be comfortable, so we need to learn to distinguish between the two. When I choose to try something new, it always scares me, but then I remind myself to—yes—listen to my heart. To trust my reasons for doing so. So, when I press “share” I know that the discomfort I feel is just my nerves and insecurities, not a sign that I’m doing the wrong thing. . 3. Move at your own
Listen to Your Heart (Part One) . As soon as I saw this I knew I had to hang it on the wall of my writing studio. (Yes—an actual writing studio! More on this soon.) In the midst of ever-swirling doubts and insecurities, its message calms me. “Listen to your heart” holds the answer to so many questions. . One such question came from one of you: “I’d like to know IF you ever feel self-conscious about self-promotion and HOW you’ve practiced handling/overcoming it. I’m very shy on Twitter and Insta-commenting, but I know being your own advocate is crucial. I’d love to know how you’ve encountered this in your creative career and life!” . Here I am, on the brink of a broadening of my teaching work and adding a new element to my career. Which also means: Here I am, faced with the necessity of self-promotion. I would be lying if I said I’m finding that putting myself out there in this way is easy. At times, it’s agonizin
UPDATE: The first session of my class, The Slow Novel Lab, has sold out. (All the seats were taken in fifteen minutes. You all are amazing and I am so grateful that you are excited about what I have to offer.) If you would like to have a guaranteed spot in the January class, just reply to the newsletter by the end of the week and I will hold a spot for you. 💕 . This is a big week for me so I’m attempting to begin it with clarity and focus, even though I’m full of nervousness and excitement. . I’m putting the final touches on my newsletter, including the first of what will be many printable PDFs with writing tips. I’ve been looking for a way to convey more thorough answers to your questions than what can fit in an Instagram caption, and the PDFs are one of the ways I’m going to do it. The first one (which will go out to everyone who has signed up to receive my newsletter and checked the box for writing tips and class news—link in bio!) has three poin
Happy #nationalcomingoutday everyone! Next week, Kristyn and I will be celebrating our ten year wedding anniversary. I had never dated a girl before I met her. I was nineteen when we had our first kiss and I still feel lucky every time she kisses me. . For anyone reading this who isn’t ready to come out yet, know that you are allowed to take as much time as you need to. It is never too late. You have beautiful things ahead of you.