SATA

PERSONAL

Born in Bronx, NY.

SUNY-Binghamton, B.A.

ADDRESS

• Home - New York, NY.

CAREER

Poet, writer, and cultural worker.

Artist fellowship in fiction, New York Foundation for the Arts, 2018; recipient of Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Grant; BookUpNYC program, National Book Foundation, author in residence; also recipient of Hedgebrook, Millay Arts, and Martha’s Vineyard writer’s residencies.

WRITINGS

• My Feet Are Laughing, illustrated by Frank Morrison, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (New York, NY), 2006
• Plátanos Go with Everything, illustrated by Sara Palacios, Harper (New York, NY), 2023
• Abuela’s Library, illustrated by Jayri Gomez, Harper (New York, NY), 2024
• The Girl Who Sings to Bees, illustrated by Geraldine Rodriguez, Roaring Brook Press (New York, NY), 2025

Also coauthor of the picture books On the Line: The First African American Rockette (with Jennifer Jones) and Until Someone Listens (with Esela Juarez).

SIDELIGHTS

Lissette Norman is a New York native of Dominican heritage. A graduate of SUNY-Binghamton, she has written several books for young readers, including My Feet Are Laughing, Plátanos Go with Everything, and Abuela’s Library, and The Girl Who Sings to Bees. She has also coauthored books with Jennifer Jones, Estela Juarez, and Chiquis. In an interview with Amaris Castillo on the Dominican Writers website, Normal discussed how she drew inspiration as a child from helping her mother in the kitchen: “My mother was an incredible storyteller. She could take any story and she would make it so funny. She was very animated and captivating in that way. And so in the kitchen, I listened more than I helped her. … Because I loved to hear her tell stories.”

Norman published her first book, My Feet Are Laughing, in 2006. Illustrated by Frank Morrison, the picture book features sixteen poems narrated by Sadie, an eight-year-old girl. Sadie lives with her mother and younger sister in Harlem, and their lives are filled with Dominican culture, from music to food to language. Commending the poems as being “infectious in their toe-tapping, life-loving spirit,” a Publishers Weekly critic concluded that “Readers may find their feet laughing right along with Sadie’s.” Reviewing the volume in School Library Journal, Teresa Pfeifer also offered praise, calling it “a sweet, hip, and joyous book.”

Following her debut book’s release in 2006, Norman took many years before publishing again. “Life really got in the way. I was working on a novel on and off for all that time,” she told Castillo, adding, “If I learned one thing as a writer, it’s that if you’re working on a project for a long time and you’re waiting, sometimes it’s good to dabble in something else.” Finally, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Norman found inspiration to pen the picture book Plátanos Go with Everything. Illustrated by Sara Palacios, the book again offers a celebration of Dominican culture, this time via the ubiquitous plátano (Spanish for plantain). In the book, young Yesenia helps her mother prepare food while her mother tells her about the history and traditions of her own native Dominican Republic. “Narrated by Yesenia in the first person, the text brims with child appeal,” remarked a Kirkus Reviews contributor. School Library Journal critic Kimberly Olson Fakih also praised the volume, calling it “a feast for cultural sharing, awakening, and creating.”

(open new)In the picture book Abuela’s Library, Alfonso always enjoyed sitting beneath the giant oak tree where Abuela would read to him. When it is found that the old tree is at risk of pulling down a power line, it is cut down. Alfonso names the stump “Abuela’s Library” and turns it into a mini-library of sorts. With help from his family, Alfonso designs the small building at the site of the stump and stores books inside. When people visit the library, he is there to offer his recommendations. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that the “upbeat tale shows how a sad event can be turned into a community project.” The same reviewer called the picture book “a tender tribute to libraries and librarians.”

Norman cowrote The Girl Who Sings to Bees with musician Chiquis. The semi-autobiographical account of Chiquis’s childhood. A young girl works in her grandmother’s garden and shares her sorrows through song to the plants and bees there. At school, she is criticized for not being as good of a singer as her late mother. She takes inspiration from a sole bee that worked past the summer months when all the other bees had retreated for the season. She works on her singing and improves immensely. A Kirkus Reviews contributor pointed out that the picture book “merges an encouraging message of renewed inner strength with a poignant tribute to” Chiquis’ mother. The same critic labelled The Girl Who Sings to Bees “a steadfast hymn from daughter to mother.”(close new)

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

• Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2022, review of Plátanos Go with Everything; May 15, 2024, review of Abuela’s Library; April 15, 2025, review of The Girl Who Sings to Bees.

• Publishers Weekly, May 22, 2006, review of My Feet Are Laughing, p. 51.

• School Library Journal, May 1, 2006, Teresa Pfeifer, review of My Feet Are Laughing, p. 115; February 1, 2023, Kimberly Olson Fakih, review of Plátanos Go with Everything, p. 63.

ONLINE

• Dominican Writers website, https://www.dominicanwriters.com/ (April 5, 2023), Amaris Castillo, author interview.

• Lissette Norman website, https://www.lissettejnorman.com/ (August 9, 2025).