Romy Natalia Goldberg is a shining voice in kid lit. She’s based in Texas and she’s heralded initiatives in her home state to promote marginalized voices in Kid Lit. In addition to this, Romy writes children’s literature that’s much needed (not to mention the work she’s done as a travel guide writer). She’s also been one of the kindest people I’ve had the privilege to connect with in the kid lit community, which is why I had to talk to her about her writing journey, travel guides, and her work with SCBWI.
You write children's literature and are in the process of querying (if I'm not mistaken). What kinds of stories are you most interested in writing?
The majority of my stories center around how we cultivate a sense of belonging by creating communities and maintaining connections to our family and culture. Having moved around Latin America a fair bit (eight countries so far) I enjoy writing about the differences and similarities within the Latinx community, especially with regard to language - we are not a monolith, by any means! I also love to write about dulce de leche and dulce de guayaba, although I love to eat them even more.
How do you decide which ideas are worth pursuing when writing and which ones to keep in the back burner?
Ohhh this is a fascinating question. As Kathi Appelt once said, an idea is not a story. I have four small children so a lot of my decisions have to do with how much time I can dedicate to developing a particular idea. I’ll be honest, I’m one of those people who is motivated mainly by deadlines so I generally have one main project I am focusing on/panicking about and a few others I’m cycling through as palate cleansers. Anything else that comes up while I’m putting my kids to bed, doing a terrible job focusing during yoga or showering gets dumped into an Evernote folder (yes, I totally listen to audiobooks in the shower and have paused them to tap an idea into my phone mid-shampoo). I try to do my best to keep from “cheating” on one deadline driven project with a shiny new idea but I make sure to capture everything that pops into my head before someone dumps glitter on the floor and it floats away.
You've worked with travel guides as work-for-hire. Can you talk about that process? What was an important lesson you learned through this process?
This is part of a much longer story involving surfers from Utah and a VW Westy, but I was in the process of moving from Argentina when I realized there were no standalone guidebooks to Paraguay on the market. I was surprised and, honestly, as a Paraguayan, a little indignant. Representation matters, right? I started a bilingual website called “Discovering Paraguay” where I wrote about Paraguayan culture as a way to build a platform while I traveled the country on a shoe-string budget. I sent out a few pitches but mostly just focused on writing my book and building a network of contacts. One day I woke up to an email from a guidebook company saying they were looking for someone to write a guidebook to Paraguay. One of my contacts had told them about me and they liked the writing on my website enough to offer me a contract. The first edition of “Other Places Travel Guide: Paraguay” was published in 2012 and I wrote an expanded update that was published in 2017.
There are so many lessons I learned throughout the whole process (enough to fill at least one self-help book, publication TBD) but the experience of actually going from working on my own to getting hired by a publisher hammered home the importance of networking and marketing. It is a lot easier to get hired for your dream job if people out there know who you are, what you’re doing, and how to contact you.
How has community helped you in your writing journey?
I’ve heard people say writing is very lonely but for me it is just the opposite. I feel so fortunate to have found a wonderful writing community both through my local SCBWI chapter and through Kidlit Latinx, a Facebook support group I co-founded with author-illustrator Adriana Bergstrom (keep your eye on her, she’s going to blow up soon, I just know it). Like all creative types (and, uh, humans) I have moments of self doubt - having people to turn to for support either in person, via text or “el guasap” (Whatsapp) has been essential. I really encourage people just starting out to work on creating genuine friendships with fellow creators. Publishing is full of rejection but having friends to cheer up during down moments and cheer for during triumphant ones is transformative.
You have free reins to collab with another Latinx creative and they’re free and on board as well, who are you picking and what are you making?
I would collaborate with Lila Quintero Weaver on a graphic novel about a girl who leaves the Paraguayan countryside to work in the Jewish-run garment factories of Buenos Aires during the 1970’s. My list of dream projects and collaborators is a mile long but this project would be the most personally transformative as it would involve delving deeply into my family history and the effects of emigration on identity and family bonds.
Is there a piece of media (book, TV, movie, etc) created by a Latinx that has helped shape your creativity?
When I moved back to the US from Paraguay in 2013 I was totally disoriented: I knew nothing about Texas, had no community yet, and, after having spent the past 6 years writing about Paraguay, could not envision a clear next step for my writing career. My kids were very small and taking care of them was the only thing I could focus on. One day we went to the Houston Children’s Museum. I sat down in the library and pulled a random book off the shelf: Carmen Lomas Garza’s “En Mi Familia.” I can still hear the cinematic “heavens parting” music ringing in my ears as I flipped through the pages. Even though her stories are from the US-Mexico border, I recognized so much in them from my own experiences living throughout Latin America. In that moment I realized I could follow in her footsteps, sharing the things that make our culture so special - first with my kids but some day with kids throughout the United States and maybe even the world.
Shoutout a Latinx writer or creator whom you admire!
I had thought for sure one of the first novels I’d read out loud to my kids would be Harry Potter - instead it was the first book from David Bowles’ middle grade Garza Twins series. What he is doing to create an appetite for Mexico’s pre-colombian myths and stories is fascinating and I can only hope that it generates in readers a desire to learn more about other cultures that made up pre-colonial America and still exist to this day.
Anything you can share about your upcoming projects?
I was fortunate enough to win Austin SCBWI’s Cynthia Leitich Smith Writing Mentor Award this year and am being mentored by Varian Johnson for a middle grade novel set in Paraguay. I’ve been focusing on that as well as polishing some picture book manuscripts. I will become the Regional Advisor for SCBWI Brazos Valley in 2020 and am currently coordinating our Leap Into Kid Lit conference which will take place in College Station, Texas on February 29th, 2020. I’m especially excited because we are inaugurating our Amplifying Unsung Voices scholarship, something I worked very hard to set up (applications are open till Oct. 20th, gente!). All in all, lots of great kidlit stuff in the works!
Romy Natalia Goldberg
Romy Natalia Goldberg is a Paraguayan-American travel and kid lit author with a love for stories about culture and communication. She holds a B.A. in Media Studies and worked in PR and advertising before turning to writing. Her travel guidebook, OTHER PLACES TRAVEL GUIDE TO PARAGUAY, was published by Other Places Publishing in 2012, updated in 2017 and lead to work with “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” The Guardian and KCRW’s “Good Food.”
She will become the RA for SCBWI Brazos Valley chapter of SCBWI in 2020. In addition she is the co-founder of Kidlit Latinx, a Facebook support group for aspiring Latinx children’s book authors and illustrators, and is a contributor to the Latinx in Kidlit website.